Customer Reviews

Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy

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Really, I find this book more about surveillance in general than spying as I usually think of the term. Nitpicking aside, this book very nearly changes the meaning of the word 'map,' giving the concept a far richer meaning than what's where, printed on a sheet of paper.

The surveillance that Monmonier describes goes back at least to the 1920s, at least. Veterans of WWI brought their knowledge of aerial photography to the USDA, where it found peacetime use characterizing soils, forests, and farms. Infra-red imagery, in particular, helped identify moisture and other conditions, so that farmers could tend different fields according to their different needs. Monmonier the traces this history forward, to the side-looking radars and multispectral imaging of today's satellite imagery. These not only track the heights of mountains and even buildings, they add layer upon layer of different kinds of raw sensor data to the basic plan of the earth and its surface. Although Monmonier discusses civilian applications more than military ones, he also goes into some of the declassified history of deeply classified military reconnaissance, and show how military technology then becomes commercial technology now.

Having added many dimensions of detail to fixed maps, Monmonier adds the dimension of time, as well. On larger scales, this could mean tracing plumes of aerial pollution as they spread with the wind. On smaller scales, it relates to urban microphone networks that identify the sources of gunshots or surveillance cameras tracking potential criminal activity. Wide networks of real-time updates change the game completely. Instead of the relatively static, even boring geographical exercises of my school days, cartography forms the foundation of rich and dynamic data analysis systems that support civic and commercial functions as well as military.

For all that, this book's analysis ends with its 2002 publication date. Of necessity, it omits more recent innovations like Google Maps and the open APIs that potentially turn everyone one geographic analysts. Whether it's a kid's map with virtual thumbtacks at friends' houses or an open source effort relating North Korea's satellite images to its news events, geography has come to life. Although Monmonier says relatively little about the military applications implied in this book's title, this book covers everything from agriculture to civil liberties, all in terms of deeply annotated geographical databases - formerly known as maps.

- wiredweird

This books addresses some topics on satellite imaging, and other technology fields applied to surveillance.
While an interesting reading, and providing very good detail (evolution of satellite resolution over the years) in some areas, it stays on the surface of others, giving the reader (me at least) the impression that there was a lot left outside. Some chapters do not deal with privacy of individuals, but communities.
The book is short and easy to read, and will provide with some good "food for thought".

this is a great book. its easy to read and informative. it gives clear examples and even includes pictures to help the explain concepts its talking about. its a good sampling of what satelite technology can and cant do and what and how its used in our everyday lives. and about how satelites are used in making maps and mapping and what the maps are used for.

Spying With Maps: Surveillance Technologies And The Future Of Privacy blends an examination of surveillance technologies with a discussion of the nature and future of privacy in a world which is becoming increasingly open to spy apparatus. Spying With Maps could have been featured in our chapter on social issues, but is reviewed here for its intriguing examination of the science of spying, from using geographic data and satellite imagery to location tracking devices.