Eavesdropping: An Intimate History

Eavesdropping is a form of human communication in which the information gained is stolen. It encompasses cheating to get unfair advantage, espionage to uncover secrets, and supervision to maintain power. John Locke considers the biological drive behind this behaviour as well as its social implications and consequences across history and cultures. Why we can't resist listening in on our neighbours Eavesdropping has a bad name. It is a form of human communication in which the information gained is stolen, and where such words as cheating and spying come into play. But eavesdropping may also be an attempt to understand what goes on in the lives of others so as to know better how to live one's own. John Locke's entertaining and disturbing account explores everything from sixteenth-century voyeurism to Hitchcock's 'Rear Window'; from chimpanzee behaviour to Parisian cafe society; from private eyes to Facebook and Twitter. He uncovers the biological drive behind the behaviour, and its consequences across history and cultures. In the age of CCTV, phone tapping, and computer hacking, this is uncomfortably important reading.