Every day, we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: We click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the 21st century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists, even lovers. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior — what we buy, how we vote — without our even realizing it.

In this tour-de-force of original reporting and analysis, journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering—and to the people controlling that world.

STEPHEN BAKER has written for many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his portrait of the rising Mexican auto industry. He is the co-author of Blogspotting.net, featured as one of fifty blogs to watch by the New York Times.