The question that haunts The Intensification of Surveillance (Pluto Press, £14.99/$24.95) is who guards the guardians? These papers document a conference on “crime, terrorism and warfare in the information age”, and as editors Kirstie Ball and Frank Webster point out, those categories are blurring as civil liberties and rights to privacy are being swept aside in the name of national security. An interesting book, it ranges from electronic tagging and joined-up surveillance to media globalisation, while leaving the guardian question wide open.
They spy with their little eye
8 November 2003
