Why Privacy Matters

Author: Richards Neil

Brand: Oxford University Press

Edition: 1

Number Of Pages: 304

Details: Product Description

A much-needed corrective on what privacy is, why it matters, and how we can protect in an age when so many believe that the concept is dead.

Everywhere we look, companies and governments are spying on us–seeking information about us and everyone we know. Ad networks monitor our web-surfing to send us “more relevant” ads. The NSA screens our communications for signs of radicalism. Schools track students’ emails to stop school shootings. Cameras guard every street corner and traffic light, and drones fly in our skies. Databases of human information are assembled for purposes of “training” artificial intelligence programs designed to predict everything from traffic patterns to the location of undocumented migrants. We’re even tracking ourselves, using personal electronics like Apple watches, Fitbits, and other gadgets that have made the “quantified self” a realistic possibility. As Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg once put it, “the Age of Privacy is over.” But Zuckerberg and others who say “privacy is dead” are wrong. In Why Privacy Matters, Neil Richards explains that privacy isn’t dead, but rather up for grabs.

Richards shows how the fight for privacy is a fight for power that will determine what our future will look like, and whether it will remain fair and free. If we want to build a digital society that is consistent with our hard-won commitments to political freedom, individuality, and human flourishing, then we must make a meaningful commitment to privacy. Privacy matters because good privacy rules can promote the essential human values of identity, power, freedom, and trust. If we want to preserve our commitments to these precious yet fragile values, we will need privacy rules. Richards explains why privacy remains so important and offers strategies that can help us protect it from the forces that are working to undermine it. Pithy and forceful, this is essential reading for anyone interested in a topic that sits at the center of so many current problems.

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of December 2021: Have you reluctantly decided that privacy is dead and sharing your digital information with unknown hordes is the toll to pay for modern life? Neil Richards’ Why Privacy Matters explains how the constant chorus of “privacy is dead” is crooned most often by those who will profit from this demise, and how we can push back against this insidious song. With dry wit and compelling examples, Richards shows that we can retake control of our privacy, strengthening our personal freedoms and putting power back into our own hands. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Books

Review

“Author Neil Richards captures some very thought-provoking situations and his book is an exceptionally good read. While it is not an everyday ‘how to’ guide for practitioners who work in the relevant field, it can certainly help seasoned practitioners, newcomers to law or those who wish to explore the deeper meaning of privacy law understand why privacy may be about power. It helps those in law understand why their client may be worried about their data being misused or misappropriated, and what those who collect our data can do with it. By understanding why privacy matters, we can better understand how to assist those seeking our help.” — Zainab Zaeem-Sattar, solicitor at Runnymede Law, London, The Law Society Gazette

“This thought-provoking book may inspire us to explore many theoretical ways to address privacy issues as well as create general models of protecting privacy. It is indispensable for those who wish to know more about privacy both academically and practically.” — Qian Li, Institute for Chinese Legal Modernization Studies, Nanjing Normal University, The Edinburgh Law Review

“Neil Richards argues powerfully and eloquently about the importance of privacy in our lives and society. Insightful and nuanced, but also very accessible and clear, Why Privacy Matters is essential reading for anyone concerned about individual identity and

Release Date: 01-12-2021

Package Dimensions: 29x247x546