TOTAL CONTROL

ARE WE SLEEPWALKING INTO TOTAL CONTROL?Mike Graham’s explosive new book warns that Britain isbecoming a nation where everything we do can be watched, tracked and recorded. They know where you go. They know what you buy. They knowwhat you watch. And Mike Graham believes this is only the beginning. In his provocative new book TOTAL CONTROL,broadcaster and Sunday Times bestselling author Mike Graham turns his attentionto the creeping surveillance and control of everyday life. Following Fake News, his investigation into therelationship between government and mainstream media, Graham asks an even moredisturbing question: just how much power are we prepared to surrender?From smartphones and social media to facial recognition,connected cars, parking apps and smart meters, Graham argues that technologysold to us as convenient is simultaneously creating extraordinary opportunitiesto monitor our behaviour. He traces his own concerns back to 2007, when asupermarket loyalty scheme revealed just how closely his shopping habits couldbe tracked. Almost two decades later, he argues, surveillance has moved farbeyond knowing where we buy our groceries. TOTAL CONTROL investigates social-media censorshipand data harvesting, questioning who possesses our personal information, whereit is stored and who may ultimately gain access to it. Graham also turns his fire on government regulation,smart technology and the increasing ability of institutions to influence howcitizens travel, communicate, consume energy and live their lives. Written with Graham’s trademark humour and refusal topull his punches, TOTAL CONTROL is both an attack on the surveillancesociety and a warning about where it could lead. “Compliance” sounds like cooperation, Graham argues. Butwhen citizens surrender control over their lives, something much morefundamental is at stake: freedom itself. TOTAL CONTROL asks whether the technology designedto make our lives easier could ultimately be used to control them.