The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.

The book moves the debate beyond alarmist, 'Big Brother' treatments or complacent assumptions that once fair information principles are in place all is well, to a constructive and thought-provoking level.

The recent development of intelligent surveillance systems has captured the interest of both academic research labs and industry. Automated Multi-Camera Surveillance addresses monitoring of people and vehicles, and detection of threatening objects and events in a variety of scenarios. In this book, techniques for development of an automated multi-camera surveillance system are discussed and proposed. The state-of-the-art in the automated surveillance systems is reviewed as well. Detailed explanation of sub-components of surveillance systems are provided, and enhancements to each of these components are proposed. The authors identify important challenges that such a system must address, and propose solutions. Development of a specific surveillance system called “KNIGHT” is described, along with the authors’ experience using it. This book enables the reader to understand the mathematical models and algorithms underlying automated surveillance as well as the benefits and limitations of using such methods.

In the context of strengthening national and facility-level Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) surveillance as a core component of infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes, WHO is publishing this practical handbook, including new simplified and validated case definitions. The main purpose of this handbook is to provide comprehensive guidance on the objectives, key concepts, principles, methods, and best practices of HAI surveillance, in order to help policymakers and IPC and surveillance professionals to design and implement effective surveillance systems to measure the burden of HAI and take action for its prevention. The handbook also includes new definitions that were developed and validated by WHO with consensus by international experts, with the intent that they could be more suitable for use in low-resource settings. These efforts are aimed at enabling more countries to design and implement HAIs surveillance systems programmes, fostering more consistent data collection across diverse healthcare settings, and streamlining the identification of HAIs for global, regional, and national benchmarking.

The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use

Americans should be able to count on receiving health care that is safe. To achieve this, a new health care delivery system is needed â€" a system that both prevents errors from occurring, and learns from them when they do occur. The development of such a system requires a commitment by all stakeholders to a culture of safety and to the development of improved information systems for the delivery of health care. This national health information infrastructure is needed to provide immediate access to complete patient information and decision-support tools for clinicians and their patients. In addition, this infrastructure must capture patient safety information as a by-product of care and use this information to design even safer delivery systems. Health data standards are both a critical and time-sensitive building block of the national health information infrastructure. Building on the Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Patient Safety puts forward a road map for the development and adoption of key health care data standards to support both information exchange and the reporting and analysis of patient safety data.

Protecting Privacy in Video Surveillance offers the state of the art from leading researchers and experts in the field. This broad ranging volume discusses the topic from various technical points of view and also examines surveillance from a societal perspective. A comprehensive introduction carefully guides the reader through the collection of cutting-edge research and current thinking. The technical elements of the field feature topics from MERL blind vision, stealth vision and privacy by de-identifying face images, to using mobile communications to assert privacy from video surveillance, and using wearable computing devices for data collection in surveillance environments. Surveillance and society is approached with discussions of security versus privacy, the rise of surveillance, and focusing on social control. This rich array of the current research in the field will be an invaluable reference for researchers, as well as graduate students.