World without secrets [electronic resource] : business, crime, and privacy in the age of ubiquitous computing

The future of computing — the future of business Rapid technological innovation is moving us towards a world of ubiquitous computing—a world in which we are surrounded by smart machines that are always on, always aware, and always monitoring us. These developments will create a world virtually without secrets in which information is widely available and analyzable worldwide. This environment will certainly affect business, government, and the individual alike, dramatically affecting the way organizations and individuals interact. This book explores the implications of the coming world and suggests and explores policy options that can protect individuals and organizations from exploitation and safeguard the implicit contract between employees, businesses, and society itself. World Without Secrets casts an unflinching eye on a future we may not necessarily desire, but will experience.

The future of computing-the future of business
Rapid technological innovation is moving us towards a world of ubiquitous computing-a world in which we are surrounded by smart machines that are always on, always aware, and always monitoring us. These developments will create a world virtually without secrets in which information is widely available and analyzable worldwide. This environment will certainly affect business, government, and the individual alike, dramatically affecting the way organizations and individuals interact. This book explores the implications of the coming world and suggests and explores policy options that can protect individuals and organizations from exploitation and safeguard the implicit contract between employees, businesses, and society itself. World Without Secrets casts an unflinching eye on a future we may not necessarily desire, but will experience.

Publishers Weekly

The warning bell about our rapidly disappearing privacy is sounded again albeit none too stridently in this study of new technologies and their impact. Hunter, a vice-president at Gartner's Research organization, a business technology consulting group, wants to sketch out how the omnipresence of computers affects every last centimeter of modern human existence. His first chapter, "Why Won't They Leave Me Alone?" is most to the point, asking, on the subject of Internet commerce, "Is the convenience of being known everywhere worth the risk of being known everywhere?" More worrisome than having a digital signature follow you everywhere online he uses the example of Amazon.com's ability to remember things you've bought or even just looked at is the ubiquity of surveillance in public and private spaces. One chapter addresses the tracking of cars, relating the story of a man who was fined $450 for driving his rental car over the speed limit. It wasn't the police that caught him it was a global positioning satellite system in the car. From there, Hunter assays such subjects as the Open Source debate (over making the source codes of commercial operating systems and applications available to the public) and Internet crime. While each of the chapters is useful by itself, Hunter's thesis gets progressively fainter as the book goes on. Very little is resolved by the end of this less-than-groundbreaking study, but it may still be interesting for those new to the subject. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Unique, international personal identifiers ... near-instantaneous data mining ... biometric face printing ... intelligent embedded devices everywhere that record, interpret, and transmit virtually everything you say and do. It's not science fiction. Much of this technology is already in place and the rest is on the way. By the end of the current decade we will inhabit a man-made environment of ubiquitous computing in which everything is recorded and nothing is forgotten.World Without Secrets explores the realities and implications of a world in which anyone who wants badly enough to know anything about you, your business, or anything else will be able to get that information. It examines the information-gathering technologies that are and will be deployed -- on our streets, in our offices and public buildings, even in our homes and cars -- and explains their benefits as well as potential serious abuses.This bone-chilling expose investigates the likely impact of ubiquitous computing on every aspect of our business, personal, political, and cultural lives. Will we be safer and our property more secure? When everything is known, how will we decide what's most important to know? Will there be any way to keep confidential information confidential? How will business protect intellectual capital?World Without Secrets also takes you into the "shadow world" of state and private-sector criminals whose livelihood is based on illicit use of growing mountains of information. It offers strategies for surviving and succeeding in a world that is rife with opportunity but dangerous for the wary and unwary alike. And it suggests policy options that can protect individuals and organizations from exploitation and safeguard the implicit contract between employees, businesses, and society itself.Peppered with uncommonly sharp insights into the way we understand information, conduct business, and try to control our surroundings, World Without Secrets breaks new ground in describing the impact of new technologies on the way we live and work. This comprehensive guide to the immediate future is compelling and necessary reading for anyone who wants to prepare personally and professionally for the enormous changes soon to come. When you read a description of a book online at Amazon.com, Amazon helpfully informs you that many people who bought that book bought certain others, too.