Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape

Rating:
Summary: More balanced view than many treatments.
Review: From Virginia Postrel's pollyannish embrace of technology to Reg Whitakers musings of government devolving power (the state withering away-an old notion yet to be validated by experience) to Jerry Furland's utterly terrifying vision, this latest entry, "Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape" at least allows that the jury is still out on this issue. Except for Furland, ("Transfer-the end of the beginning")each falls short of addressing what one can "DO" with this new technology and actually provides a credible blueprint in novel form. I recommend each of these authors, but I put my money on Furland being right.

Rating:
Summary: An overview
Review: This book is somewhat slanted toward "technology is bad" but not excessively so. The focus is on political issues and opinions. How well one likes these chapters depends on one's political leaning; few of the chapters manage to be balanced. The one chapter on technical matters is a nice but simple introduction to computer security. Many chapters have long reference lists for further study.

Rating:
Summary: More balanced view than many treatments.
Review: This book is somewhat slanted toward "technology is bad" but not excessively so. The focus is on political issues and opinions. How well one likes these chapters depends on one's political leaning; few of the chapters manage to be balanced. The one chapter on technical matters is a nice but simple introduction to computer security. Many chapters have long reference lists for further study.