Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy

Cellular technology has always been a surveillance technology, but "cellular convergence" - the growing trend for all forms of communication to consolidate onto the cellular handset - has dramatically increased the impact of that surveillance. In Cellular Convergence and the Death of Privacy, Stephen Wicker explores this unprecedented threat to privacy from three distinct but overlapping perspectives: the technical, the legal, and the social. Professor Wicker first describes cellular technology and cellular surveillance using language accessible to non-specialists. He then examines current legislation and Supreme Court jurisprudence that form the framework for discussions about rights in the context of cellular surveillance. Lastly, he addresses the social impact of surveillance on individual users. The story he tells is one of a technology that is changing the face of politics and economics, but in ways that remain highly uncertain.

Stephen B. Wicker is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, and a member of the graduate fields of Information Science and Computer Science. He teaches and conducts research in wireless and wired information networks, privacy-aware design, computer security, and digital telephony. His research focuses on the interface between information networking technology, law, and sociology, with a particular emphasis on how design choices and regulation can affect the privacy and speech rights of users. He is the author of six books, holds a number of patents, and has received four Cornell teaching awards. He is the Cornell Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation TRUST Science and Technology Center, a research center dedicated to cybersecurity, electronic privacy, and the protection of critical infrastructure. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.