Enerstvedt, having an interesting background in both formal education and industry experience, has artfully combined a discussion of aviation security technology with privacy and human rights in a 453-page treatment. She correctly indicates that security considers details for purposes of protection, but also may present a threat to individuals and societies. Determining the appropriate balance of this “dual nature of surveillance” is a major theme in her work. Aligning the technology of surveillance with the legal concepts of privacy and data protection is her major research theme. Anyone interested in the human and freedom factors to consider in “security versus privacy” will find profitable reading.

The book is broken into three parts and eight chapters. Part 1, the “General Part,” discusses privacy, data protection, and human rights in aviation security, contemporary civil aviation security approaches and regulations, and the legal aspects of privacy and data protection. Part 2, the “Special Part,” reviews aviation security technologies, with an analysis of privacy and data protection as related to these technologies. Part 3, “Conclusion,” wraps up the study. The author correctly notes that technologies precede legal regulation and that technologies contain both positive and negative elements. The author is concerned that technology measures may “simply mask human rights infringements.” The author sees critical issues in the balance between security and privacy, data protection, and the “underdevelopment of democratic values.” The potential spread of aviation security technologies to other areas “would be a fundamental violation of freedom.”

There is a useful table of cases from the European Court of Human Rights, European Court of Justice, US, and United Kingdom (UK). There are lists of aviation security guidelines, tables of legislation, and some 19 pages of additional sources and reference materials. However, there is no comprehensive index. That aside, the chapters are sufficiently subdivided in the table of contents so that relevant material may be quickly located.

No special technical background is required to understand and comprehend this well-written and recommended study.