 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | This provocative book offers a probing account of the erosion of privacy in American society, that shows that we are often unwitting, if willing, accomplices, providing personal data in exchange for security or convenience. The author reveals that in today's "information society," the personal data that we make available to virtually any organization for virtually any purpose is apt to surface elsewhere, applied to utterly different purposes. The mass collection and processing of personal information produces such tremendous efficiencies that both the public and private sector feel justified in pushing as far as they can into our private lives. And there is no easy cure. Indeed, there are many cases where privacy invasion is both hurtful to the individual and indispensable to an organization's quest for efficiency. And as long as we willingly accept the pursuit of profit, or the reduction of crime, or cutting government costs as sufficient reason for intensified scrutiny over our lives, then privacy will remain endangered. |
Average Customer Rating:   Cool assessment of the privacy we are losing now This book is not a novel, yet has been read like one, not only because of a number of seemingly far-fetched privacy horror stories and of sudden realization as to what kind of society we live in; but also of its well-structured narrative that is read with ease and sometimes with mild entertainment. Indeed, Jame B. Rule is a first-rate writer and certainly knows how to deliver key messages to readers more effectively and efficiently.
This is an excellent reference for readers looking for a book that encompasses a range of privacy issues we are exposed of, or forced to grapple with. It starts with current status and risky trends entailing privacy lost or ever being deteriorated; introduces how deeply and disturbingly our privacy has been attacked, eroded, and exploited either explicitly or implicitly; then look around other peer countries, such as the U.K., France, Australia, and of course Canada, to compare how and what those developed countries are doing with regard to this seemingly endangered privacy trends.
What I particularly liked in this book was in its objectiveness. Coolness. Rule never goes excessive, although sometimes the fact itself he offers is scary enough. He is neither pessimistic nor optimistic - just shows what options we have, or will have in reality, not in theory. Here is his key message:
"The issues involved are ultimately ethical and political, not technological. If we determine to do so, we can readily implement systems that:
* place the burden of justification on those who would create personal data systems in the first place;
* grant substantial control over data processes to the individuals described in them;
* ensure quick elimination of personal information from data systems, once their immediate purposes are served;
* define the purposes of data collection in terms of the interests of individuals rather than of organizations; and
* limit the amount and variety of personal data allowed to bear on determinations of how organizations will treat individuals." Highly sophisticated analysis of a difficult problem This is not the typical "the sky is falling" expose of the death of privacy in America. Although Rule is an advocate of strong privacy protections, he devotes considerable thought and attention to why such protections are desirable and to why we should even care that truthful information about us is being disseminated, as long as efficiency and security are increased.
Rule buttresses his analysis with a fascinating contrast between the Kantian imperatives (which argue for protection of privacy as a basic human right) and the pragmatism associated with thinkers like Auguste Comte (which argues for societal efficiency and the constant use of balancing tests). This is an extraordinarily accomplished aspect of the book, as is his in-depth history of the growth of the credit-reporting industry in America. Rule shows that this industry blossomed long before the computer did. Rule does not blame technology for the decline in privacy.
This book is more a philosophical, sociological, and economic inquiry than a call for immediate action. It is, however, quite powerful.
I would have given five stars were it not for several passages discussing the history of privacy laws in France, Australia, and other nations. It seemed as if Rule was merely displaying his erudition rather than adding much to his argument.
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