First published 2014
Vance Packard sounds the alarm about surveillance technologies creeping into American life in 1964. Hidden microphones record private conversations. Concealed cameras watch unsuspecting citizens. Modern filing systems catalog personal details. Polygraph machines probe minds for secrets. Government agencies, employers, stores, credit bureaus, and security forces deploy these tools to invade civil liberties. Packard documents loyalty investigations that destroy careers. He reveals passport restrictions that trap citizens. He exposes overzealous police actions that trample rights. The author argues that technology, when wielded by government and business, erodes fundamental freedoms. He warns that America risks becoming the surveillance state that George Orwell imagined in 1984. Packard shows how the assault on individual rights takes many forms, with technological spying representing the most brazen violation. His investigation reveals a society where privacy vanishes and freedom withers under the watchful eye of authority.
Genres: 20th-century, american, politics, social-issues, non-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
Period: 1964
272 pages · Paperback · Ig Publishing