lury.gibson is the handle of Adam Lury & Simon Gibson who co-wrote Dangerous Data. Although presented as a novel, it is more of a thesis on the dangerous level to which our privacy has been eroded.

The main character is "Dogg". He (or she, it's never made explicit) is a self-proclaimed "Data Detective". That is, he's a hacker who uses public and private systems - legally and illegally - to gain information on people. The extent to which this is possible today is the point of the book.

The story begins when Dogg is approached by "Mr. C". This client wants information on a certain flat and its inhabitants.

In short order, Dogg finds out who lives there (electoral role), their histories (police computers, credit agencies, personnel records etc) and their tastes (credit card records). As he delves further in to their lives we come to know these characters by proxy and watch their relationships twist and turn.

"Dangerous Data" is very highly structured. It consists of alternate pages, a page of "data" followed by a page of Dogg musing as to what this data means. Since the data is often little more than a few lines - for example a credit card statement - this means that the book as a whole is very short. You should be able to read it in a couple of hours at most.

If you're like me, you'll probably read it in one sitting. There's something horribly fascinating about spying on these fictional people, being a data voyeur on their lives. Despite the fact that you never see them directly you get to know them, predict their reactions, smile at certain credit card entries... You even get to understand their sex lives. Then, every so often, you think "So who's looking at my data right now?"

Telling a story by indirect means such as this isn't new. I've seen it done via emails, shopping lists, etc. This is the first time I've seen it done in terms of hacked data. It works - as well as can be expected. Unfortunately it suffers the usual problem with such structures; we are always watching the action at a distance. It's intellectually fascinating but there's no strong emotional connection with the characters.

The other problem is that the "plot" as such isn't really strong enough. lury.gibson tries to spice things up towards the end yet somehow it doesn't ring true and the ending is... well, "weak" is the only word. Obviously the writers' attention was on the data, unfortunately this meant that they seem to have forgotten about story telling. Which is a shame, because with a better plot this could have been a brilliant book.

As I said at the beginning, Dangerous Data is really a wake up call as to how far we have already lost our privacy. As such this book needs to be read, despite its faults. If Big Blunkett gets his way and introduces compulsory National Identity Cards then the last vestiges of privacy will disappear for ever.

For now, I'm taking cash with me to the supermarket.