Description
Book SynopsisWith today's rapid evolution and deployment of new information and computing technologies, the "age of ubiquitous computing" is upon us. Human beings will be, to an ever greater extent, surrounded by machines that monitor, record, and analyze everything that occurs around them, leading to a world in which secrets are almost impossible to keep.
Trade Review"...the book is important — it contains fresh thinking, a rarity these days.... [Richard Hunter] is always provocative. He gathers impressions and conversations from a surprisingly broad array of sources. He assembles this material into something approaching a coherent whole.... [Richard Hunter's] [i]nsights...are well worth the price of admission to
World Without Secrets." (
New York Times, April 28, 2002)
World Without Secrets: Business, Crime and Privacy in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing by Richard Hunter delivers a first-rate explanation of the impact of technology on the public, government, business and communities. Hunter, who is vice president and director of security research for GartnerG2, a division of the world's largest technology research firm, writes expertly and urgently about the panoply of internet-related problems each of these diverse groups will face in the years ahead. "There's way too much information-about everything-out there now, and it's going to get a lot worse," Hunter argues. Because technologies arrive at different times, their impacts are cumulative. We don't see the true effects of a technology's use until long after that technology has invaded our everyday world. Looking forward, Hunter describes a world in which loss of privacy, technological terrorism and the heist of artistic rights are a foregone conclusion. This is an important book which sheds thought-provoking light on the slippery slope we are descending when it comes to Internet technology. (BookPage, August 2002)
"...I would however definitely recommend this book as it certainly is an interesting, if not a little chilling, read..." (M2 Best Books, 5 September 2002)
"...an excellent introduction to contemporary attitudes towards and policies of surveillance..." (Free Pint, 31 October 2002)
"...written with a mixture of eloquence and frivolity that makes the book hard to put down...it is carefully crafted from numerous interviews with people...to create a well-rounded and multi-faced story..." (The Times Higher Educational Supplement, 15 November 2002)
Table of ContentsPreface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Everything You Need to Know before We Start xix
A Brief History of the Next 10 Years xxi
Chapter 1: 1
Why Won’t They Leave Me Alone?
The Power of Names and Numbers 2
What Does It Take to Create a Universe? 3
Crossing Over 5
More Data, More Power, Few Controls 6
Unstoppable Momentum 8
By the Numbers 9
Where Did the Secrets Go? 10
Chapter 2:13
Streets Without Secrets
How the Future Worked in the Past 15
Authentication and the Exception Economy 17
How It Works in Tampa 19
What the Software Knows 21
Yes, Probably 22
Does It Work? 23
More Faces in View 25
Walk with Me 25
Keep Walking 27
Do the Math 28
Draw the Lines 31
So? 33
Eternally Vigilant? 34
Chapter 3: 37
Homes Without Secrets
I Want This Why? 39
KISS 40
About Those Cameras 42
Data at Rest 44
The Rules 45
We Are the Boundary 47
Chapter 4: 49
Cars Without Secrets The Technical Stuff: Telematics 50
Who Hears What 51
The More You Give, the More You Get 51
Who’s Driving? 53
What the Owner Wants 54
Cars Without Secrets, Now 55
What the Car Knows 56
Suppose 58
Private by Intention 59
What Can Policy Do? 60
Call Me Any Time 62
Speaking of Enhancing Performance 63
Making the Drivers Smart 64
Smart Cars, Yes 65
It’s Simple, Not 67
Hunter’s First Law 68
Chapter 5: 69
The N Party System: The Era of the Network Army
How Scenarios Work 70
The Scenarios for Social Structures 70
The Quadrants 72
The Engineered Society 73
The Lost and Lonely 75
The Conscientious Objectors 80
The Network Army 81
I Repeat: The Network Is an Amplifier 84
Chapter 6: 85
Software Without Secrets
Disruptive, Quite 86
Business Without Secrets 87
Interviewing Raymond 87
Hackers and Crackers 89
From Communities to Network Army 90
Open Source Is More Than Open Source 96
Yeah, It’s a High-Performance Team 97
Is This Message Clear? 99
The Medium and the Message 100
Why They Listen 101
Power Grabs, Not 101
Ideological Conflict and Corruption 102
Nemesis and the Network Army 104
Can I Be Your Enemy? 104
Generals Are Always Fighting the Last War 105
The Message and the Medium, and the Audience for Linux 106
If You’re Losing the Battles, Change the Battlefield 107
Free Stuff Kills Competitors, Not Markets 108
Why Not Just Let the Market Do Its Work? 109
Maybe Someone Can Be Convinced 110
How Did Things Get So Bad? 112
A Few Pointers for Engineered Society Generals 112
Hunter’s Second Law 114
Chapter 7: 115
The Rise of the Mentat
Mentat Defined 115
Why Mentats? 122
Mentats Have (Hidden) Power 123
Mentats Provide Less Information 124
The Network Mentat 124
The Mentat Reviewer 126
Choose Your Mentat 126
Trust Matters 128
Mentats and the Law of Inertia 129
Mentats and I-Filters 130
Hunter’s Second Law—Personal and Institutional Conflict 130
Breaking the Bubble 131
Would Breaking the Bubble Have Saved Cisco? 132
Reality Always Wins (in the World Without Secrets and Everywhere Else) 133
On the Interactions of Laws 133
Chapter 8:135
Distracted Consumers, Mentats, and Timothy McVeigh
The Path of Least Resistance 136
It’s Easier If You Don’t Ask 137
So Why Look? 139
Did McVeigh Do It? 140
The Necessary Knowledge Is That of What to Observe 142
What Do You See? 142
Chapter 9: 145
In the Exception Economy, Be Exceptional
What Drives the Exception Economy? 147
A Portrait of the Artist as a Very Big (or Little) Number 156
Business Without Secrets 157
The Business Is a Network 158
Art Is Exceptional, Objects Are Not 165
Chapter 10: 167
Art Without Secrets
Who Wins and Who Loses? 167
Relationships Matter: The Fate of the Music Industry 170
The Economics of Long-Playing Plastic 170
Yes, It Really Works Just Like That 174
Independents: They’re Everywhere. Are They Dangerous? 177
What about the Relationship? 179
Strategies for Record Industry Viability 180
Strategy 1: Kill Digital Distribution 181
Strategy 2: Monopolize Bandwidth 186
Strategy 3: Prohibit Alternative Business Models 188
Summary: The Fate of Digital Objects 192
Power and Knowledge 192
Chapter 11: 193
Crime Without Secrets
Buying In 194
Yeah, It’s about Technology 195
The Lessons 196
Plan B 197
What We Fear 198
It’s Not the Transaction, It’s the Database 199
Mass Victimization 200
Why Worry? 202
Chapter 12: 203
War Without Secrets
Engineered Society Warfare and the Terrorist 205
Crime Is War, War Is Crime 208
Network-Centric Warfare 209
Crackers at War: Threat or Menace? 218
What’s Potential and What’s Real? 225
What to Do, Right Now 234
Chapter 13: 245
Digital Pearl Harbor
On the Morning . 247
What Happened after Pearl Harbor 250
A Pearl Harbor for the New Century 251
A Dream of Electronic Handcuffs 252
Under Observation 255
Watching Everything Is Not Knowing Everything 256
If Automated Surveillance Works, Whom Does It Work On? 257
The Issue Is Control 259
The Return of the Engineered Society 260
Who’s Not on the Team? 261
Pearl Harbor in the Borderless World 262
Chapter 14: 265
The Last Secrets
Notes 267
Index 275
