On Privacy and Technology

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  1. Essential reading for understanding privacy in the AI era
    For anyone concerned about privacy, On Privacy and Technology is a concise, eye-opening primer. It is very accessible and engaging. If you enjoyed Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, then this is a must-read book. It is much shorter than Zuboff’s great book but it packs quite a punch. Solove structures the book into three key sections: how to think about privacy and technology; the dimensions of technological change; and power, law, and accountability.What sets this book apart is its depth – it goes beyond surface-level discussions to examine both historical and contemporary forces shaping privacy. Solove presents real-world examples and thought-provoking arguments that highlight the challenges of balancing privacy and innovation, as well as a path forward. Solove shows how the law isn’t holding the creators and users of new digital technologies (such as AI) accountable. Without accountability, there is no incentive to reduce risk or prevent harm. The book walks through the many different kinds of harm and why current law and policy aren’t addressing them.A quick afternoon read, this book is for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of privacy and its evolving role in our world. Highly recommended!

  2. Mildly useful overview
    “Can anything be done to save us from a dystopian world without privacy?” We learn that the answer is ‘yes, badger your legislators to give bureaucrats and administrative law judges more latitude to punish entities they don’t like anyway’.We get to this answer after some useful reviews of how the legal privacy landscape came to be and the resulting oversights and flaws. Challenges of designing effective privacy legislation are anticipated and addressed. We also get some reviews which might not be terribly useful: bemoaning the impersonal nature of credit scores and sentencing algorithms without allowing for the possibility that these systems are more accurate than those they replaced, reminders that the true victims of online harassment and deplatforming are women and minorities, and the description of identical behavior as antisocial “doxxing” (p. 18) when done to the in-group and heroic “unmasking” (p. 80) when done to the out-group.The mention of a minor tidbit in the Ken Starr probe was quite curious. You won’t find any mentions of more relevant, impactful privacy-invading surveillance events conducted under the aegis of a law that the author and other privacy advocates didn’t like in the mid-2000s.A quick efficient read with some good points and useful perspectives, but it subjects the reader to more subtle lectures than necessary.

  3. Challenges you to rethink technology and privacy
    A timely, essential contribution to this field. Solove is a leading light in privacy scholarship, synthesizes decades of research and insight into a highly readable examination of privacy’s interplay with technology.Solove covers the “privacy paradox” and “technology neutrality” and challenges the reader to rethink widespread assumptions and misconceptions. He rejects privacy self-management and current regulatory frameworks, advocating instead for meaningful, pragmatic legal interventions.As with Solove’s other works, the book is informed with perspectives from philosophy, sociology, and literature. Solove’s emphasis on the social value of privacy—as critical not just for individuals but for a healthy and democratic society—resonates powerfully in today’s climate of relentless digital surveillance.

  4. A clear and accessible review of a vital but often misunderstood civil liberty.
    This is a clear, concise, and compelling book that is a must-read for anyone interested in modern privacy issues. Daniel Solove is one of the leading privacy scholars and this highly accessible book does a masterful job of confronting the most common privacy myths and misconceptions. It gives the reader a language to better think about modern privacy issues caused by technology and paints a path forward that goes beyond futile self-help gestures. Whether you are a novice or expert on these issues, this book belongs on your bookshelf.

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