The Spy in the Coffee Machine: The End Of Privacy As We Know It - Softcover

Kieron O'Hara; Nigel Shadbolt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1851685545 ISBN 13: 9781851685547

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2008

Synopsis

We are entering a new state of global hypersurveillance. As we increasingly resort to technology for our work and play, our electronic activity leaves behind digital footprints that can be used to track our movements. In our cars, telephones, even our coffee machines, tiny computers communicating wirelessly via the Internet can serve as miniature witnesses, forming powerful networks whose emergent behaviour can be very complex, intelligent, and invasive. The question is: how much of an infringement on privacy are they? Exposing the invasion of our privacy from CCTVs to blogs, The Spy in the Coffee Machine explores what―if anything―we can do to prevent it from disappearing forever in the digital age, and provides readers with a much needed wake-up call to the benefits and dangers of this new technology.

About this title

About the Authors

Author Kieron O'Hara is Senior Research Fellow in the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group (IAM), in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton. He is currently involved in the Office of Science and Technology's Cybertrust and Crime Prevention initiative. He is the author of two books in popular science and sociology: Plato and the Internet, and Trust: From Socrates to Spin. He also co-wrote the script for best-selling computer game Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation.

Nigel Shadbolt is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southampton, UK, and was President of the British Computer Society in its 50th anniversary year 2006-2007. He is Chief Technology Officer of internet security firm Garlik, and a director of the Web Science Research Initiative. He is both a chartered psychologist and a chartered engineer, and sits on a number of UK national science and technology committees.

From the Back Cover

We are entering a new state of global hypersurveillance, one that risks making our understanding of privacy completely obsolete. As we increasingly resort to technology for our work and play, our electronic activity leaves behind digital footprints that can be used to track our movements. In our cars, telephones, even our coffee machines, tiny computers communicating wirelessly via the Internet can serve as miniature witnesses, forming powerful networks whose emergent behaviour can be very complex, intelligent – and invasive. The question is: how much of an infringement on privacy are they? Could these intelligent networks be used by governments, criminals, or terrorists to undermine privacy or commit crimes? Or is it worth trading away our privacy for the immense benefits of the new technologies?

Realistic, insightful, and informed, The Spy in the Coffee Machine exposes the true extent to which our privacy has been invaded by everything from
closed-circuit televisions to blogs, and explores what – if anything – we can do to prevent it from disappearing forever in the digital age.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1851685545
• ISBN 13: 9781851685547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280