A new book on more than 500 years of surveillance scandals

Truncated messages, telegrams that were intercepted, were intercepted Malicious phone calls and backdoors in email programs and Databases – State surveillance has historical roots going back through the mists of time. I Observation history Says historian Andreas Marklund spoke of how princes, governments, and other rulers over the centuries exercised power through surveillance The flow of communication and information in society.

Nowadays, government surveillance systems face increasing competition from Google, Facebook, and other internet companies that are using new digital technologies to map our personal tendencies and dreams. The basic democratic idea and rule of law have made surveillance an anomaly in modern society. But the right to possess secret knowledge was for a long time a princely privilege – and private life is historically a new phenomenon, both significantly smaller and more fragile than secret state surveillance systems.

I The history of surveillance – from black lockers to digital mass surveillance, Draw Andreas Marklund Main features of the dramatic and mysterious history of observation. The story is based on Swedish and Danish circumstances, but is also related to developments in countries that throughout history have had a major impact on the nature of intelligence gathering. This applies, for example, to countries such as France, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Of course, there is a lot in this book that looks eerily appropriate today, he says Andreas Marklund He adds:

On the other hand, one of the points of the book is that monitoring has always been relevant and tangible because it is part of the essence of the state.

Observation history It is a very current story of global proportions with roots in the 16th century message espionage with ramifications that extend to digital mass surveillance today. In the book, we follow these hidden power structures as their search for secrets and sensitive information through the nooks and crannies of Europe’s history.