World Without Secrets: 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.

Table of Contents:
Preface 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

About the Author :
RICHARD HUNTER is Vice President, Security Research, GartnerG2, the strategic business growth division of Gartner, Inc., the world's largest technology research firm. Hunter is internationally renowned for his expertise in technology and security, cybercrime, information management, and privacy. He was formerly Vice President and Director of Research for Applications Development at Gartner. Hunter earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University with a concentration in music and is also a world-class harmonica virtuoso. He works in Gartner's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and lives nearby.

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)