The Silicon Jungle: A Novel of Deception, Power, and Internet Intrigue by Shumee

Description: FREE SHIPPING UK WIDE The Silicon Jungle by Shumeet Baluja What happens when a naive intern is granted unfettered access to peoples most private thoughts and actions? Stephen Thorpe lands a coveted internship at Ubatoo, an Internet empire that provides its users with popular online services, from a search engine and e-mail, to social networking. When Stephens boss asks him to work on a project with the A FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description What happens when a naive intern is granted unfettered access to peoples most private thoughts and actions? Stephen Thorpe lands a coveted internship at Ubatoo, an Internet empire that provides its users with popular online services, from a search engine and e-mail, to social networking. When Stephens boss asks him to work on a project with the American Coalition for Civil Liberties, Stephen innocently obliges, believing he is mining Ubatoos vast databases to protect people unfairly targeted in the name of national security. But nothing is as it seems. Suspicious individuals surface, doing all they can to access Ubatoos wealth of confidential information. This need not require technical wizardry--simply knowing how to manipulate a well-intentioned intern may be enough. The Silicon Jungle is a cautionary fictional tale of data minings promise and peril. Baluja raises ethical questions about contemporary technological innovations, and how minute details can be routinely pieced together into rich profiles that reveal our habits, goals, and secret desires--all ready to be exploited. Back Cover "A cerebral, cautionary tale. Credible and scary." --Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist and one of the "Fathers of the Internet" "At last, computer science has its equivalent to Scott Turow. Shumeet Baluja not only tells a compelling story, but as an expert in data mining, he also knows his stuff. His story shows how powerful and far-reaching modern search technology can be, and hence, potentially dangerous if not properly controlled. A techno-thriller with a disturbing message." --Keith Devlin, author of The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern "Clever and prophetic. The Silicon Jungle will be required reading from Silicon Valley to Washington, DC." --Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center "The Silicon Jungle is an engaging and welcome addition to the literature of dystopia. The connections drawn between people, places, products, and internet usage, as well as the data-mining scientists in this suspenseful and alarming novel, show us that the decline of individual freedoms can occur not through weapons and coups, but through profiles germinated from algorithmic seeds." --Gary T. Marx, author of Undercover: Police Surveillance in America "This novel will open your eyes to issues of privacy on the internet and to the hazards of placing uncritical, blind trust in the people overseeing this vast enterprise. Baluja tells a story about something that could happen to any of us--if youre even modestly concerned about information privacy, this is an important book to read." --Roy Maxion, Carnegie Mellon University " The Silicon Jungle expertly explores a major what if that should interest anyone who has ever used a cell phone or Wi-Fi connection, or typed a keystroke on a computer connected to the internet. The story is intriguing, well researched, well written, and frighteningly probable. A delightfully entertaining and thought-provoking read for all." --Retired Senior Official, National Security Agency "This novel does an excellent job of introducing the ideas behind data mining and provides greater insight into the process than anything I have seen in fiction. The book presents a number of important issues, both technical and social." --Joseph D. Sloan, Wofford College Author Biography Shumeet Baluja is a senior staff research scientist at Google and the inventor of over 100 patents in algorithms, data mining, privacy, and artificial intelligence. Table of Contents Preface xi Endings 1 Anklets 3 Anthropologists in the Midst 10 Mollycoddle 13 Touchpoints 19 Checking In 26 Working 9 to 4 28 Predicting the Future and 38 Needles 33 Contact 39 Two Geeks in a Pod 47 An Understatement 53 Euphoria and Diet Pills 61 To Better Days 70 Marathon 75 The Life and Soul of an Intern 81 Candid Cameras 85 Episodes 89 Liberal Food and Even More Liberal Activism 92 Subjects 100 Newsworthy 105 Patience 110 Hypergrowth 113 Little Pink Houses 117 Truth, Lies, and Algorithms 122 Negotiations and Herding Cats 129 The JENNY Discovery 133 I Dream of JENNY 138 A Five-Step Program: Hallucinations and Archetypes 143 Over-Deliver 150 A Life Changed in Four Phone Calls 154 Giving Thanks 160 A Drive through the Country 166 Control 171 A Tale of Two Tenures 178 Prelude to Pie 183 The Yuri Effect 188 Apple Pie 195 Thoughts Like Butterflies 201 Core-Relations 207 Collide 212 Control, Revisited 220 Fables of the Deconstruction 223 Control, Foregone 232 Foundations 236 One Way 241 Sebastins Friends 244 A Tinker by Any Other Name 251 When It Rains 262 I Am a Heartbeat 267 What I Did This Summer 273 A Permanent Position 280 For Adam 284 Faith 288 Counting by Two 291 Disconnect 298 Sahim 304 Epilogue: Beginnings 309 Acknowledgments 313 Know More 315 Privacy Policy of a Few Organizations 317 References 319 Review Co-Winner of the 2012 Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work, Media Ecology Association "Balujas clever, cynical debut explores the frightening possibilities of data mining... A nod to Upton Sinclairs muckraking The Jungle, which scared its readers into regulating the meat-packing industry, this lively if depressing novel suggests that computer snooping is too seductive to control, despite the consequences."--Publishers Weekly "[F]righteningly convincing... The read is quick, the questions will linger, and the ideas are so intriguing... Baluja simplifies the abstract world of tech-speak for the rest of us while aiming to do for the Internet what Upton Sinclairs The Jungle did for the meat industry: make readers reconsider its safety. For fans of intelligent thrillers."--Stephen Morrow, Library Journal "In the era of the ubiquitous web company, The Silicon Jungle provides ample food for thought."--Zena Iovino, New Scientist "[T]his cautionary tale is fascinating for its exploration of technology as a conduit for crime."--Michele Leber, Booklist Online "The books central message is fascinating. A company like Google, Baluja points out, has far more information on U.S. citizens than does the FBI and far fewer restrictions on how to use it. Its a chilling message in a fun package."--Kathleen Offenholley, Mathematics Teacher Prizes Joint winner of Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work, Media Ecology Awards, Media Ecology Association 2012 (United States) Review Quote "This novel will open your eyes to issues of privacy on the internet and to the hazards of placing uncritical, blind trust in the people overseeing this vast enterprise. Baluja tells a story about something that could happen to any of us--if youre even modestly concerned about information privacy, this is an important book to read." --Roy Maxion, Carnegie Mellon University Details ISBN0691169675 Author Shumeet Baluja Pages 352 Publisher Princeton University Press Year 2015 ISBN-10 0691169675 ISBN-13 9780691169675 Format Paperback Imprint Princeton University Press Subtitle A Novel of Deception, Power, and Internet Intrigue Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States Birth 1971 DEWEY 813.6 Short Title SILICON JUNGLE Language English Media Book Publication Date 2015-08-25 Translated from English UK Release Date 2015-08-25 NZ Release Date 2015-08-25 US Release Date 2015-08-25 Alternative 9780691147543 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education AU Release Date 2015-11-01 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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End Time: 2025-01-03T14:29:08.000Z

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