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Privacy
American essayist and Harper's contributing editor Garret Keizer offers a brilliant, literate look at our strip-searched, over-shared, viral-videoed existence.
Body scans at the airport, candid pics on Facebook, a Twitter account for your stray thoughts, and a surveillance camera on every street corner -- today we have an audience for all of the extraordinary and banal events of our lives. The threshold between privacy and exposure becomes more permeable by the minute. But what happens to our private selves when we cannot escape scrutiny, and to our public personas when they pass from our control?
In this wide-ranging, penetrating addition to the Big Ideas//Small Books series, and in his own unmistakable voice, Garret Keizer considers the moral dimensions of privacy in relation to issues of social justice, economic inequality, and the increasing commoditization of the global marketplace. Though acutely aware of the digital threat to privacy rights, Keizer refuses to see privacy in purely technological terms or as an essentially legalistic value. Instead, he locates privacy in the human capacity for resistance and in the sustainable society "with liberty and justice for all."
Body scans at the airport, candid pics on Facebook, a Twitter account for your stray thoughts, and a surveillance camera on every street corner -- today we have an audience for all of the extraordinary and banal events of our lives. The threshold between privacy and exposure becomes more permeable by the minute. But what happens to our private selves when we cannot escape scrutiny, and to our public personas when they pass from our control?
In this wide-ranging, penetrating addition to the Big Ideas//Small Books series, and in his own unmistakable voice, Garret Keizer considers the moral dimensions of privacy in relation to issues of social justice, economic inequality, and the increasing commoditization of the global marketplace. Though acutely aware of the digital threat to privacy rights, Keizer refuses to see privacy in purely technological terms or as an essentially legalistic value. Instead, he locates privacy in the human capacity for resistance and in the sustainable society "with liberty and justice for all."
208 pages, ebook
First published August 7, 2012
8 people are currently reading
976 people want to read
About the author
Garret Keizer
12 books30 followersGarret Keizer is the author of eight books, the most recent of which are Getting Schooled and Privacy. A contributing editor of Harper's Magazine and a Guggenheim Fellow, he has written for Lapham's Quarterly, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications.
You can learn more about Keizer's work and also contact him at his website:
http://www.garretkeizer.com
The website of his current publisher is here:
http://us.macmillan.com/author/garret...
You can learn more about Keizer's work and also contact him at his website:
http://www.garretkeizer.com
The website of his current publisher is here:
http://us.macmillan.com/author/garret...
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 12, 2012
My main take away from this was that you don't have to take sides, exactly, between (a) a world in which we keep most personal information to ourselves and (b) a world in which we share personal information. If you're in the A camp, you can get labeled a Luddite or a Victorian. If you're in the B camp you might be considered part of a narcissistic culture. But the real issue is being able to choose whether you want to want to divulge personal information or not. You might want to talk openly about one part of your life but not another. He comes back to the class issue a lot - that wealthy people have the means to ensure their privacy; others don't. And I thought his argument that privacy may not be as culturally relative as people think was valid.
December 29, 2015
The topic for my debate league this year is privacy versus national security. I got this book from my local library to help my research. In that respect, it was a success. I found information to support both the importance of national security and of privacy. It was also an enjoyable read. It helped me think more about the topic of privacy and formulate my own opinions, not just be able to argue for and against it in a debate round. I would recommend it to others looking to expand their knowledge of privacy. However, if there was a movie of someone reading this book aloud, it would be rated PG-13. Mr. Keizer uses fairly mature topics for his examples of privacy (private things are by definition not often talked about in polite conversation) and there are two cuss in chapter four. Even with those elements I was still able to learn from and appreciate Mr. Keizer's work.
January 29, 2013
Great stuff, I need to reread. Each page had so many ideas in it, I felt like I was only taking in about a third of what he was saying. Some themes include how class/economics effect who gets privacy and who doesn't. Also he shows how people will throw away their privacy on one day and howl with outrage over invasions of privacy on the next day. Highly reccomended.
July 20, 2018
A series of brief chapters that perhaps could have been fashioned as self-contained essays but are woven together into a unique book. It's a heavy dose of personal opinion and interpretation, most of which I agreed with or at least appreciated. It engages with modern technological issues (the publication date is 2012 and this doesn't feel "dated" yet as of 2018) but it also grounds itself in more timeless questions.
April 29, 2013
I've been struggling to resolve my thoughts on privacy. This book helped with clear analysis of the concept, importance, and limitations of privacy. I'd go so far as today this book should be a foundational element in civics education (if such a thing still exists).
"...the protection of one's own privacy is often a gesture of respect to another person's sensibilities." (p. 16)
"Privacy and sustainability both belong by first right to the oldest elite the world has ever known, by which I mean the aristocracy of those who can do without. Writing on behalf of that aristocracy, Henry David Thoreau said we are wealthy in proportion to the number of things we 'can afford to let alone.'" (p. 135)
" When people complain that nothing is sacred anymore, they are essentially saying that we are at the point where nothing trumps convenience. They are lamenting that what has come to matter most is getting what we want in the best, cheapest, and quickest manner possible. In a roundabout way they are also talking about technology, consumer capitalism, the fate of the earth, and the will to resist. Almost always they are talking about privacy, about the explicit exposure of matters they feel ought to be kept private." (p. 139)
"...the protection of one's own privacy is often a gesture of respect to another person's sensibilities." (p. 16)
"Privacy and sustainability both belong by first right to the oldest elite the world has ever known, by which I mean the aristocracy of those who can do without. Writing on behalf of that aristocracy, Henry David Thoreau said we are wealthy in proportion to the number of things we 'can afford to let alone.'" (p. 135)
" When people complain that nothing is sacred anymore, they are essentially saying that we are at the point where nothing trumps convenience. They are lamenting that what has come to matter most is getting what we want in the best, cheapest, and quickest manner possible. In a roundabout way they are also talking about technology, consumer capitalism, the fate of the earth, and the will to resist. Almost always they are talking about privacy, about the explicit exposure of matters they feel ought to be kept private." (p. 139)
January 22, 2014
Keizer has some nice insight into privacy and related ideas. I can also get down with some of his politics; he seems concerned with representation and oppressed communities (though the chapter on feminism and privacy read like it was an afterthought) and relates those social concerns handily–though not so thoroughly–to privacy.
The book is a sea of references and citations and quotes, which is sometimes nice, sometimes overwhelming.
Where Keizer and I are completely at odds is concerning technology. He's a clear skeptic, values "real world" interaction over mediated interaction, etc. This greatly informs his thoughts on privacy as they relate to the internet and tech, which is thankfully by no means a significant part of the book. He readily admits his ideas here will not age gracefully; he is right.
All in all, Keizer does a good job outlining what privacy is and how it does and should work for certain and different groups. Read the last paragraph first and if it seems intriguing, it is. It's a quick read, get the job done and points you in the direction of plenty of other sources.
The book is a sea of references and citations and quotes, which is sometimes nice, sometimes overwhelming.
Where Keizer and I are completely at odds is concerning technology. He's a clear skeptic, values "real world" interaction over mediated interaction, etc. This greatly informs his thoughts on privacy as they relate to the internet and tech, which is thankfully by no means a significant part of the book. He readily admits his ideas here will not age gracefully; he is right.
All in all, Keizer does a good job outlining what privacy is and how it does and should work for certain and different groups. Read the last paragraph first and if it seems intriguing, it is. It's a quick read, get the job done and points you in the direction of plenty of other sources.
December 7, 2012
I find privacy to be an incredibly fascinating topic, especially since I took a course last spring in Information Privacy Law. Garret Keizer’s small book is most definitely full of BIG IDEAS. It takes a subject that could be boring and abstract, and turns it into a compelling and relevant look into the role that privacy plays in our lives, and the way the concept has changed over time. Keizer’s writing is also wonderful to read; I found myself posting quote after quote from this book on my Tumblr because I simply loved the way Keizer put words together into eloquent and powerful sentences.
January 24, 2013
This book seems disjointed to me and some of the analogies and examples are facile. There are some excellent examples of court cases that should scare anyone that believes that privacy is a desirable aspect of life. There is no discussion of changes in cultural attitudes to privacy e.g. workers in the Middle Ages bedded down in the castle great hall and kings and queens had almost no privacy at all. A short historical discussion and its effect on society would have helped to put our current ideas of privacy into a larger framework.
August 9, 2013
This slim volume is eloquent and well-researched but only skims the tip of the iceberg. Although Keizer addresses many important and relevant issues, each one appears just long enough to register before the author flits to the next. For my law homies: this book mostly approaches the topic of privacy from a philosophical, not legal, standpoint, although it does fleetingly mention the elusive penumbra.
Side note: it was refreshing to hear the perspective of someone who is both progressive and privacy-loving.
Side note: it was refreshing to hear the perspective of someone who is both progressive and privacy-loving.
June 4, 2014
An impressive collection of essays exploring the concept of privacy and what determines it. Class, gender, culture, technology, and a country's morality are a few determinants considered. I don't see that privacy is a matter of interest to the newest millennials, something I find disturbing.
July 30, 2012
Excellent, thought provoking, and well written, Keizer attacks the subject of privacy and the different definitions with attention to detail and wit.
December 21, 2012
Keizer can basically do no wrong. I hope he never has cause to write about me from a place of anger.
March 2, 2013
A wonderful look at the concept of privacy through the ages. I found myself re-reading certain passages and making a list of works cited that I hope to read.
October 25, 2014
Fierce clarity in this vigorous defense of privacy and relentless indictment of all the assaults on it in contemporary culture--and the voluntary surrender to social media and pervasive surveillance.
January 6, 2015
Abandoned. Selected it because I enjoyed Getting Schooled, but could not make it through. Gave up about halfway through.
August 23, 2014
We all need to think a bit more about the ideas discussed in this book. Very thought-provoking.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews