My Chronicle of Higher Ed review essay on privacy and surveillance
I have a new review essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education examining some new books and thoughts on privacy in the digital age.
My three big points are:
1) Anyone who claims "young people don't care about privacy" doesn't understand that privacy is about control, not about whether we choose to reveal our sexual or consumer details in public forums.
2) We have at least four "privacy" interfaces" and try to govern our details and reputations differently in each one. For instance, we regulate information about ourselves one way among friends and family, and a different way with Amazon or Google.
3) The "Panopticon" model of surveillance is stale and inapplicable to the current situation. We don't suffer from knowing we are being watched. We suffer more from the surveillance we are not supposed to see or understand -- such as the illegal domestic wiretapping in the United States.
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