World Without Secrets: Business, Crime, and Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing

by Richard Hunter

Book Overview

Durch die rasante Entwicklung und Installation neuer Informationstechnologien r?ckt es unaufhaltsam n?her - das Zeitalter des allgegenw?rtigen Computers.

Dadurch sind wir Menschen in einem noch gr? eren Umfang als zuvor Maschinen ausgesetzt, die alles ?berwachen, aufzeichnen und analysieren, was um uns herum geschieht.

Nichts bleibt mehr verborgen; Geheimnisse gibt es nicht mehr!

Doch dieses Umfeld wird sich nachhaltig...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471218162
• ISBN13: 9780471218166
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Hunter corroborates McNealy?s privacy observation

Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, summed up the privacy debate with his now famous remark of "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it". In World Without Secrets: Business, Crime and Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous, author Richard Hunter spends 300 engrossing pages corroborating McNealy's observation.The reality is that with advancements in computing and networking, personal privacy slowly gets chipped away, and as Hunter sees it, will ultimately deteriorate. Hunter details in each chapter how the age of ubiquitous computing, where everything short of the food we eat has a network address, can be monitored. Such technological advances creates a world where everything is known and all information is available; a world without secrets. World Without Secrets takes a look at the implications that we are now facing with technology. A cynical reader may think that the author is no more than a Chicken Little for the digital age; yet in page after page, and chapter after chapter, Hunter details examples of how technology can be both innocuously used and offensively manipulated, resulting in the potential for huge privacy breaches. While most books on privacy and information focus on how corporations use and misuse personal data, World Without Secrets adds an interesting twist and provides insights into what Hunter calls Network Armies; which are groups of virtual communities, sharing a similar goal. Hunter sees these Network Armies as starting points in the digital revolution. The only downside to the book is that while Hunter does not provide any type of answer or resolution on how to better enable privacy in the digital age. Perhaps there is no answer. World Without Secrets presents a new look at the issues of privacy and technology. Those who are paranoid may feel vindicated, and those who never understood the implications of technology and its repercussions on privacy may feel violated. Either way, World Without Secrets is a fascinating and timely book.

Scarier than Fiction

This book is scarier than fiction. Technology is changing how we live, but not all change is good. Hunter brings to life many real life scenarios that show how pervasive technology will have an irreversable effect on our right to privacy unless we do something now.

Dark side of CRM

It's ironic that I just finished reading a book about customer relationship management CRM) in which all of the elements are needed in order to implement and effectively use CRM are the same elements that this book exposes are threats to us as individuals. This book is chilling for a number of reasons, but the top ones (in my opinion) are:(1) As an IT professional I am involved in CRM (customer relationship management), which has a goal of knowing your customer and providing individualized service - this requires knowing your customers and collecting data. After reading this book I had to step back and think about the impact on privacy and customer rights. This is a Catch-22 situation wherein providing high levels of service requires a great deal of data, but the same data eats away at privacy. (2) The array of technologies to gather information, including those that have migrated from the intelligence community into business and/or law enforcement, further chip away at privacy. This is exacerbated by laws passed and national attitudes since September 11. Privacy and freedoms are interrelated, so these technologies, combined with laws and attitudes pose a threat to our freedom as well. (3) Attitudes, business imperatives and social evolution are merging to change the entire social fabric of our way of life - and we are active participants in some aspects, and in other aspects we are facilitating this change. The ways we are doing that is through willingness to accept changes that are detrimental to privacy, and/or the pursuit of meeting business imperatives and competitive advantage without fully examining the long term ramifications.What I like is the way the author thoroughly and systematically addresses the threats to our privacy, freedom and well being. The discussion in "Rise of the Mentat", aside from catering to fans of Frank Herbert's sci fi masterpiece, Dune, will open your eyes about how information is processed and fed to us. After reading this chapter you'll wonder how much you really know, and how much of what you think you know is based on all available facts and data. However, the real eye-opener is the way that virtual communities are coming together in ways that could not have been predicted ten years ago. The Internet has enabled people of like interests, both benevolent and malevolent, to find one another on this planet, band together and begin exerting influence. In the same manner that maps drawn with political borders do not display cultural borders, these groups called "Network Armies" in the book go beyond cultural or national interests and are changing our social fabric in ways that the author only touches upon.This book is well written, filled with examples and facts, and arrives at thought-provoking conclusions. It does not matter if you work in IT or another technology-focused industry, law, business or non-profit organizations, what this book has to say and the facts and conclusions that are presented ar

It's here and now

Every day I see electronic privacy issues in the news. Nanny camera hacking, .coms selling previously private data, fervent calls for a national ID. If I had not read this book, I would have seen these as random stories. World Without Secrets gave me the insight to see the big picture in these events that lead us to ever increasing exposure and exploitation of the data trails we leave behind every day. Hunter has done a good job of synthesizing the threat, opportunities and strategies for dealing with this new reality.