'This book will change the way you think about today's new media
technologies' - Daniel J. Solove, author of ""The Digital Person:
Technology and Privacy in the Information Age"". Whether you're
purchasing groceries with your Safeway 'club card' or casting a
vote on ""American Idol"", those data are being collected. From
Amazon to iTunes, smart phones to GPS devices, Google to TiVo - all
of these products and services give us an expansive sense of
choice, access, and participation. Mark Andrejevic shows, however,
that these continuously evolving new technologies have also been
employed as modes of surveillance and control, most disturbingly
exemplified by revelations about the NSA's secret monitoring of our
phone calls, e-mails, and internet searches. Many contend that our
proliferating interactive media empower individuals and democratize
society. But, Andrejevic asks, at what cost? In ""iSpy"", he
reveals that these and other highly advertised benefits are
accompanied by hidden risks and potential threats that we all tend
to ignore. His book, providing the first sustained critique of a
concept that has been a talking point for twenty years, debunks the
false promises of the digital revolution still touted by the
popular media while seeking to rehabilitate, rather than simply
write off, the potentially democratic uses of interactive media.
Andrejevic opens up the world of digital rights management and the
data trail each of us leaves - data about our locations,
preferences, or life events that are already put to use in various
economic, political, and social contexts. He notes that, while
citizens are becoming increasingly transparent to private and
public monitoring agencies, they themselves are unable to access
the information gathered about them - or know whether it's even
correct. (The watchmen, it seems, don't want to be watched.) He
also considers the appropriation of consumer marketing for
political campaigns in targeting voters and examines the
implications of the Internet for the so-called War on Terror. In
""iSpy"", Andrejevic poses real challenges for our digital future.
Amazingly detailed, compellingly readable, it warns that we need to
temper our enthusiasm for these technologies with a better
understanding of the threats they pose - to be able to distinguish
between interactivity as centralized control and as collaborative
participation.
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