Privacy

Privacy is a complex and controversial right. The essays in this book address fundamental issues about its value and how best it may be defined. Some of them examine its importance and scope in the context of the information society in which both government and business acquire ever more knowledge about the conduct and attitudes of individuals. Others address the use of privacy to protect the rights of women and to protect individuals against the media.

Contents: Why Privacy is Valuable: Philosophical views on the value of privacy, Glenn Negley; Why privacy is important, James Rachels; Privacy, intimacy and personhood, Jeffrey H. Reiman; Property rights in personal information: an economic defense of privacy, Richard S. Murphy. The Definition and Scope of Privacy: A definition of privacy, Richard B. Parker; Privacy, morality and the law, W.A. Parent; Rereading Warren and Brandeis: privacy, property and appropriation, Robert C. Post; Driving to the panopticon: a philosophical exploration of the risks to privacy posed by the highway technology of the future, Jeffrey H. Reiman; Protecting privacy in an information age: the problem of privacy in public, Helen Nissenbaum. The Feminist Critique of Privacy: Feminism and the public/private distinction, Ruth Gavison; The violence of privacy, Elizabeth M. Schneider; Living with the risk of backfire: a response to feminist critiques of privacy and equality, Laura W. Stein. Privacy, the Media and Data Protection: The right to privacy revisited: privacy, news and social change, 1890-1990, Randall P. Bezanson; Privacy as a theoretical and practical concept, Peter Blume; Privacy in cyberspace: constructing a model of privacy for the electronic communications environment, Katrin Schatz Byford; Name index.

Eric Barendt