IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017 - 12

find the culprits who compromise
private records, or protect systems
from attempts at hacking into them.
In Undercover, Marx discussed
the more overt means of surveillance,
such as spying on criminal enterprises or wire-tapping suspects to build a
case against them. But Windows into
the Soul looks at the many subtle
ways that new technologies are being
used to extract our personal information, sometimes for purposes we
might consider relatively benign (such
as the websites that use cookies to
learn more about our shopping preferences), and sometimes for purposes that are more nefarious (such as
hackers determined to commit identity theft). He discusses secret government programs like those enacted
after 9/11, that monitored phone calls
made to certain foreign countries
considered hotbeds of terrorism. And
he examines how accessing, collecting, and controlling data is no longer
coercive. The new surveillance is "soft,
unobtrusive, and manipulative, rather
than directly forceful." This softer surveillance is often so subtly that people
are unaware it is occurring, such as
when "sensors and cameras are hidden in everyday objects, [like] the proverbial nanny cam in the teddy bear."
Marx also explores the public's
often-contradictory attitudes towards
who should and should not be able to
access their data. For example, people say they want to be safe (whether
from criminals or from terrorists), and
after 9/11, there was little resistance
to expanding government surveillance
under the Patriot Act. But on the other
hand, people also say they value their
privacy and they want to limit how
much of their data the government
can see.
In addition to observing that attitudes about government surveillance
tend to change depending on whether or not there is a crisis, Marx also
observes that sometimes the public
has overly high expectation of what

technology can do. For example, on
TV shows, technology is always the
magic answer that helps the good
guys to locate the evil-doers. But in
real life, for every successful apprehension of a criminal, there are
times when the bad guys still manage to get away. Marx notes that it
took ten years to locate Osama Bin
Laden, and it was thanks in large
part to human intelligence, rather
than technology. The book provides
a thoughtful discussion about the
ethics of surveillance, as well as the
balancing act governments and corporations maintain (with greater or
lesser degrees of success) between
protecting people's personal data
and being able to access it under certain circumstances. How those circumstances should be defined, and
by whom, is another topic still being
debated - while this book went to
press before the controversy over Hillary Clinton's emails, this issue is certainly germane to his central point.
It is understandable that work-related
emails of government officials should
be public record; but should a political figure, whether a president or a
secretary of state, be expected to
hand over personal emails between
family members that may have nothing to do with their government
duties? Marx acknowledges that we
may have entered an "era of suspicion," where many believe that vital
information is being concealed from
them. But what are the rules regarding how much secrecy is necessary
versus how much is detrimental to
the public's right to know?
I do have several small complaints about this otherwise thorough and insightful book. One is that
at times, the style of Windows into
the Soul varies greatly. Some chapters read like a textbook, complete
with quotes from scholars like Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault,
end-of-chapter lists of terms, and
reminders of the significant concepts
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

that chapter contained. (This makes
it quite useful for students, since
Marx does cover a great amount in
each chapter, and the opportunity
to review terminology is always useful.) But other chapters read almost
like extended blog posts, complete
with clever puns and references to
popular culture - lyrics from classic rock songs; lines from TV shows
and movies; reprints of New Yorker
cartoons... there are even quotes
from the Bible, Shakespeare, and
folk tales. Marx also likes to quote
long passages from writers who satirize coercive work environments,
such as a fictional employee handbook for a company that claims
to support and respect its employees while continuously monitoring
and scrutinizing everything they
do on the job; or a speech by the
pseudonymous "Rocky Bottoms"
on the "wonders of modern surveillance." While Marx is impressed
with this type of satirical take on
the excesses of surveillance, I am
not convinced that reprinting such
long digressions adds to the book,
or enhances the points he is making.
But that aside, this book meets
a very pressing need: it provides a
thorough and fair examination of
different theories about surveillance,
and allows the reader to benefit
from exposure to multiple perspectives. Marx knows he is dealing with
a complex and constantly changing subject, and he does not try to
offer simplistic solutions. Rather,
his approach in writing Windows
into the Soul is to encourage further
conversation and further research.
This is definitely a book that both
academics and non-academics will
want to discuss.

Reviewer Information
Donna L. Halper is an Associate Professor of Communication at Lesley
University, Cambridge MA.

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march 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017