Privacy: A Manifesto
by Wolfgang Sofsky
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Description
What ever happened to privacy? The simple right to be left alone? Surveillance cameras track our movements. Governments monitor our phone calls, e-mails, and Internet habits. Insurance companies know what drugs we take. Banks and credit agencies keep tabs on our smallest purchases. And new technologies--which gather, store, and share information as never before--have made all of this possible. But, as the acclaimed social thinker Wolfgang Sofsky shows in this brief and powerful defense of show more privacy, neither technology nor fears of terrorism deserve all the blame. Rather, through indifference and the desire for attention, we have been accomplices in the loss of our privacy. When we aren't resigning ourselves to privacy's disappearance as the inevitable price of living in a new age, we are eagerly embracing opportunities to divulge personal information to people we know--and, increasingly, to people we don't. Dramatically demonstrating how much privacy we have already surrendered, Sofsky describes a day in the life of an average modern citizen--in other words, a person under almost constant scrutiny. He also briefly traces the changing status of privacy from ancient Rome to today, explains how liberty and freedom of thought depend on privacy, and points to some of the places where privacy is under greatest threat, from health to personal space. Privacy is a timely and compelling reminder of just how important privacy is--and just how devastating its loss would be. show lessTags
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This. Pretty much all of it. Not that it'll make a difference. Hell, I'm on Facebook.
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Author Information
23 Works 274 Members
Wolfgang Sofsky is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Gottingen
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2007; 2008-09-28 (English) (English)
- Original language
- German
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Sociology, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction, Philosophy, Technology
- DDC/MDS
- 323.448 — Society, government, & culture Political science Civil Rights & Liberties/ Human Rights The state and the individual Liberty Privacy, Freedom from Surveillance
- LCC
- BF637 .P74 .S74513 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Psychology Psychology Applied psychology
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 53
- Popularity
- 572,371
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.64)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
