As we increasingly resort to technology for our work, play and socialising, digital footprints linger, which can be used to track our movements. And computers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous – miniaturised witnesses which might be concealed anywhere – in your car, your telephone, even your coffee machine. These tiny machines, communicating wirelessly via the Internet, can form powerful networks whose emergent behaviour can be very complex, intelligent, and invasive. The question is: how much of an infringement on privacy are they? Could these intelligent networks be used by governments, criminals or terrorists to undermine privacy or commit crimes? Or is it worth trading away our privacy for the immense benefits of the new technologies?From CCTVs to blogs, and from RFID tags to cookies, we are entering a new state of global hypersurveillance. “The Spy in the Coffee Machine” explores what – if anything – can we do to prevent our privacy disappearing forever in the digital age, and provides readers with a much-needed wake-up call to the benefits and dangers. Realistic, insightful and informed, it explains how the technology that threatens us can be used for our protection as well.