Liquid Surveillance

'Today the smallest details of our daily lives are trackedand traced more closely than ever before, and those who aremonitored often cooperate willingly with the monitors. From Londonand New York to New Delhi, Shanghai and Rio de Janeiro, videocameras are a familiar and accepted sight in public places. Airtravel now commonly involves devices such as body-scanners andbiometric checks that have proliferated in the wake of 9/11. Andevery day Google and credit-card issuers note the details of ourhabits, concerns and preferences, quietly prompting customizedmarketing strategies with our active, all too often zealouscooperation. In today's liquid modern world, the paths of daily lifeare mobile and flexible. Crossing national borders is a commonplaceactivity and immersion in social media increasingly ubiquitous.Today's citizens, workers, consumers and travellers arealways on the move but often lacking certainty and lasting bonds.But in this world where spaces may not be fixed and time isboundless, our perpetual motion does not go unnoticed. Surveillancespreads in hitherto unimaginable ways, responding to andreproducing the slippery nature of modern life, seeping into areaswhere it once had only marginal sway. In this book the surveillance analysis of David Lyon meets theliquid modern world so insightfully dissected by ZygmuntBauman. Is a dismal future of moment-by-moment monitoringclosing in, or are there still spaces of freedom and hope? How dowe realize our responsibility for the human beings before us, oftenlost in discussions of data and categorization? Dealing withquestions of power, technology and morality, this book is abrilliant analysis of what it means to be watched - andwatching - today.