Technocreep

“Technology is rapidly moving into our bodies,” writes cyber expert Tom Keenan, “and this book gives a chilling look ahead into where that road may lead us.” Here is the definitive dissection of privacyeroding and lifeinvading technologies, coming at you from governments, corporations, and the person next door.

Take, for example, the furor over “Girls Around Me,” a Russianmade iPhone app that allowed anyone to scan the immediate vicinity for girls and women who checked in on Foursquare and had poorly secured Facebook profiles. Going to a Disney theme park? Your creepy new “MagicBand” will alert Minnie Mouse so she’ll know your kid’s name when you approach her. Thinking about sending your DNA to Ancestry.com for some “genetic genealogy”? Careful: your genetic information could be used against you.

One of the world’s top computer security experts, Thomas P. Keenan hosted the award-winning CBC Ideas series Crimes of the Future. A Fellow of the Canadian Information Processing Society and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, he received the 2012 NSERC Award for Science Promotion and is a popular professor at the University of Calgary.

"This book should be read by anyone who uses a smartphone, computer or other device connected to the internet. It won’t make you feel better, but at least you’ll know what you’re up against." -Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch

"This masterful weaving of the negatives and positives of technology makes for a book that is realistic about technology’s perils yet optimistic about it’s great potential." -Barry Silverstein, Foreword Reviews

"We live in perilous times, what with cyber-bullying, password theft, online scamming and the like. But most instances of “technocreep,” says this Canadian computer-security expert, happen without our ever knowing about it, and the villains are not only crooks but our own governments and trusted corporations." -Toronto Star