No place to hide
By: Robert O'Harrow, Jr.
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
Subjects: Information technology -- Social aspects; Information society; Electronic surveillance; Privacy, Right of
Description: "In No Place to Hide, Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow, Jr., lays out in detail the post-9/11 marriage of private data and technology companies and government anti-terror initiatives to create something entirely new: a security-industrial complex. Drawing on his years of investigation, O'Harrow shows how the government now depends on burgeoning private reservoirs of information about almost every aspect of our lives to promote homeland security and fight the war on terror." "Consider the following: When you use your cell phone, the phone company knows where you are and when. If you use a discount card, your grocery and prescription purchases are recorded, profiled, and analyzed. Many new cars have built-in devices that enable companies to track from afar details about your movements. Software and information companies can even generate graphical link-analysis charts illustrating exactly how each person in a room is related to every other - through jobs, roommates, family, and the like. Almost anyone can buy a dossier on you, including almost everything it takes to commit identity theft, for less than fifty dollars." "O'Harrow tells the inside stories of key players in this new world, from software inventors to counterintelligence officials. He reveals how the government is creating a national intelligence infrastructure with the help of private companies. And he examines the impact of this new security system on our traditional notions of civil liberties, autonomy, and privacy, and the ways it threatens to undermine some of our society's most cherished values, even while offering us a sense of security."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-332) and index.
Table of contents: title: Six weeks in autumn; title: Data revolution; title: Who am I?; title: The matrix; title: Look me up sometime; title: The immutable me; title: Total information awareness; title: The government's eyes and ears; title: Good guys, bad guys; title: No place to hide.