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Title details for When Gadgets Betray Us by Robert Vamosi - Available

When Gadgets Betray Us

The Dark Side of Our Infatuation With New Technologies

by Robert Vamosi
Sean Pratt
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Technology is evolving faster than we are. As our BlackBerry devices, tablets, and digital capabilities become more and more complex we understand less and less about how they work. we no longer read the instruction manual before powering on, and we demand intuitive interfaces that get us up and running right away. But how many of us actually stop to think about potential threats to our privacy?
Our passports broadcast our personal information and could allow terrorists to target us by nationality. Keyless entry systems in many high-tech car models make auto theft easier than ever. Commercial photocopiers are equipped with hard drives that can document everything we ever copied on it. And our digital photos, even after they're cropped, can expose the entire original image (hope you weren't doing anything naughty in that facebook profile picture).
In When Gadgets Betray Us, Robert Vamosi, a technology reporter and analyst who has been covering the internet age for over a decade, investigates the dark side of digital capability and convenience. He uncovers a secret world of privacy loss that most of us never consider— that is, until something goes terribly wrong. From iPads to BlackBerry devices, online banking to keyless entry systems, we're increasingly giving over the management of our crucial information to the latest and greatest electronic gadgets.
Vamosi helps us comprehend the technology in our everyday lives and develop a common sense about how to protect ourselves. An essential guide for understanding what we're really signing up for every time we log-in, When Gadgets Betray Us reveals the secret lives of our electronic devices so that we can all better manage the real risks.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 29, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781469032665
      • File size: 252291 KB
      • Duration: 08:45:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 14, 2011
      PCWorld's Vamosi offers a solid analysis of just how deeply technology can be used to gather personal information about us without our awareness, a scenario more alarming than we can imagine. His thoroughly researched look at the products being used in many unintended ways, and unintentionally, by their owners is exhaustively detailed: how auto antitheft technology can be used to help car thieves; how mobile phone conversations can be intercepted without our knowledge; how "black box" data recording technology in automobiles as well as "in our digital cameras, our photocopiers, and even those convenient toll-booth bypass gadgets on the freeway" can be used by companies to surreptitiously gather personal information. Vamosi's goal is to shock, but he also argues that, in certain cases, such as data-mining health information, "electronic data can sometimes be better at telling us what is happening in the world around us than our own senses." But overall, he convincingly shows how and why we need to "scrutinize the gadgets we now take for granted, and view with suspicion new gadgets that come our way."

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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