A recent issue of Popular Mechanics featured an article on emerging surveillance technologies, showcasing the latest innovations in the field (Krebs 2009). The magazine asked provocatively, “Who’s Tracking You?” and answered (indirectly), “everyone”, from your cell phone company, to your boss, your spouse and your government. Trying to describe the full range of the problem, the article indiscriminately mixed various surveillance techniques, from workplace spying methods with incidents involving modern ‘Peeping Toms’, quickly followed by descriptions of corporations tracking “your every move”, through mobile positioning systems in cell phones. Discursively, the message was simple: you are susceptible to surveillance and you should take protective measures. Fortunately for the reader, the magazine also offered tips on ‘fighting back’, mainly through commonsense suggestions for individuals, such as tracking the ‘cookies’ in your Internet browser and turning off your cell phone. In the end, the article was more entertaining than informative.
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