IP: "World without Secrets"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Judi Clark <judic () manymedia com>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 08:33:06 -0700
To: farber () cis upenn edu

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/business/yourmoney/28VALU.html

Talk in Your Sleep? Is the Radio Listening?

By WILLIAM J. HOLSTEIN

At a time when headlines seem focused on pedophile priests Enron, and the
economy, and terrorism and the Middle East, it would be easy to forget the
technology revolution of the 1990's. Was it all a bizarre dream?

A new book by Richard Hunter, "World Without Secrets: Business, Crime and
Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing" (Wiley, $27.95), is a sharp
reminder that the technologies of the 90's are still being deployed rapidly.
The collapse of dot-coms and the decline in high-technology stocks - as well
as all the other recent distractions - have not halted a march toward a time
when people are surrounded by computers, sensors, transmitters and cameras
linked to extensive networks and databases.

Mr. Hunter, vice president and director of research for applications
development at Gartner, a research group in Stamford, Conn., has a sweeping
view of how this technology is unfolding, altering American society and
playing out on the world stage.

The book could have used more editing. Readers may grow weary of the italics
(in some places, it seems that nearly every other word is italicized) and
the repetition of material like "Hunter's Laws," a set of assertions by the
author. How many times do we need reminders that "the network is an
amplifier" and "when everything is known, no one knows everything"?

But the book is important - it contains fresh thinking, a rarity these days.
Imperfections in style can be forgiven.

The book offers many examples of how this new era is already invading our
privacy, and in ways we haven't fully grasped. Amazon.com has altered its
privacy policies to allow it to share information about customers with
companies that want to sell goods and services to them. Jeffrey P. Bezos,
Amazon's chief executive, did not start out doing business that way.

<snip>



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