Just Released, Solove's Understanding Privacy, a Must-Read

About the Author

When research privacy issues, Daniel Solove's publications are the works I turn to first. His monographs include The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Yale University Press 2007), The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age (NYU Press 2004), Information Privacy Law (Aspen Publishing Co. 2006) (with Marc Rotenberg & Paul M. Schwartz), a casebook now in its second edition, and Privacy, Information, and Technology (with Marc Rotenberg & Paul M. Schwartz) (Aspen 2006), a book designed for use in cyberlaw, law and technology, privacy law, and information law courses and seminars. Solove has written more than 25 articles and essays including Data Mining and the Security-Liberty Debate, 74 U. Chicago Law Review 343 (2008) and A Taxonomy of Privacy, 154 U. Pennsylvania Law Review 477 (2006), winner of the 2006 Privacy Enhancing Technologies Award. He blogs at Concurring Opinions, a blog covering issues of law, culture, and current events. [JH]

Daniel Solove has had the patience and insight to lay privacy bare. This is the most thorough and persuasive conceptualization of privacy written to date. Solove's taxonomy of privacy will become the standard tool for analyzing privacy problems. -- Peter P. Swire, C. William O'Neill Professor of Law and Judicial Administration, Ohio State University

Understanding Privacy
by Daniel J. Solove

List Price: $45.00
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press (May 21, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0674027728
ISBN-13: 978-0674027725

Book Description: Privacy is one of the most important concepts of our time, yet it is also one of the most elusive. As rapidly changing technology makes information increasingly available, scholars, activists, and policymakers have struggled to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible.

In this concise and lucid book, Daniel J. Solove offers a comprehensive overview of the difficulties involved in discussions of privacy and ultimately provides a provocative resolution. He argues that no single definition can be workable, but rather that there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by family resemblances. His theory bridges cultural differences and addresses historical changes in views on privacy. Drawing on a broad array of interdisciplinary sources, Solove sets forth a framework for understanding privacy that provides clear, practical guidance for engaging with relevant issues.

Understanding Privacy will be an essential introduction to long-standing debates and an invaluable resource for crafting laws and policies about surveillance, data mining, identity theft, state involvement in reproductive and marital decisions, and other pressing contemporary matters concerning privacy.

About the Author: Daniel J. Solove is Associate Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School [web profile].