Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) are delighted to announce that the winner of the SSN Book Award 2018 is:
Creditworthy: A History of Consumer Surveillance and Financial Identity in America by Josh Lauer, Columbia University Press
We received several book nominations for the award. The quality of all nominated books was outstanding. Creditworthy was chosen as the winner by a panel of judges who were impressed by its empirical depth and analytical sharpness. The book should be of interest to all surveillance scholars around the globe.
Condensed and paraphrased from the publisher page:
Creditworthy is the first comprehensive history of credit bureaus, which today are multi-billion-dollar corporations that track our movements, spending behavior, and financial status. The book explores the evolution of credit reporting from its nineteenth-century origins to the rise of the modern consumer data industry. By revealing the sophistication of early credit reporting networks, Creditworthy highlights the leading role that commercial surveillance has played—ahead of state surveillance systems—in monitoring the economic lives of citizens.
