Young Saudi females and their smartphones

That picture of a 13 year old’s mobile home screen reminded me of a really interesting paper written by Sunila Lobo and Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood (who is a whizz about all things mobile) on how young female Saudis use their smartphones. The paper is available here, though, unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. The research … Continue reading Young Saudi females and their smartphones

New book: The Private Security State

I am delighted to let you know about the publication of the book “The Private Security State? Surveillance, Consumer Data and the War on Terror”. This book is the outcome of a large research project led by Professor Kirstie Ball, at the Open University, and which I was part of. This project looked at the … Continue reading New book: The Private Security State

Electronic surveillance: Minority Report minus the precogs

Details are emerging about the USA’s National Security Agency (NSA) secret surveillance programme to collect and analyse data from computer and telephone networks. It is hardly a surprise that the North American government has a surveillance programme. Rather, it is the secretiveness, the extent and the intrusiveness of the programme that is causing shockwaves. The … Continue reading Electronic surveillance: Minority Report minus the precogs

What I am reading: Speculative Security

Given that money is either the outcome or the enabler or most human activity, studying the records of financial transactions can tell us many things about who we are, who we associate with and what we do. The potential of such information has not escaped the attention of governments. Nowadays, financial intelligence is a key … Continue reading What I am reading: Speculative Security

Research project “Taking Liberties” – practitioner reports available

For the past couple of years I have been working with colleagues from the Open University on a research project looking at the uses of commercial data for national security purposes. The project was sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust and was motivated by the observation that, increasingly, commercial organisations are asked to act on behalf … Continue reading Research project “Taking Liberties” – practitioner reports available