This chapter notes that it’s really easy to fake the return number on a caller ID? Doctorow even suggests the reader “google ‘spoof caller id.’” Why would Doctorow suggest we do this? How does his call to action pull the reader into the novel? Connect Doctorow’s suggestion to what we know of him as a writer and an Internet activist.
It can quickly be gathered that surveillance and the spreading of information through the Internet are topics that will be dealt with in this book. While at school, Marcus is surrounded by gadgets teachers have set up to try to keep tabs on the students. Right to privacy has already clashed with these tracking devices as authorities have been required to trade in face recognition cameras for gait recognition cameras as the face recognition cameras were considered unconstitutional. Marcus also notes that even though the teachers aren't allowed to put tracking devices on the students, they can put them on library books, which can be used, indirectly, to track the students. Even on the streets, Marcus and his friends face high tech snitches who take their pictures and threaten to put them on the Internet as proof the students skipped school.
