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Privacy: A Manifesto
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 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.
But, as the acclaimed social thinker Wolfgang Sofsky shows in this brief and powerful defense of 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.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
152 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
2 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Wolfgang Sofsky
36 books5 followersWolfgang Sofsky, geboren 1952, lehrte als Professor für Soziologie an den Universitäten Göttingen und Erfurt. Seit 2001 arbeitet er als Privatgelehrter, Autor und politischer Kommentator. 1993 erhielt er den Geschwister-Scholl-Preis für »Die Ordnung des Terrors. Seine Essays sind regelmäßig in der deutschsprachigen Presse zu lesen und im Rundfunk zu hören.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 5, 2018
E' un lungo elenco, esaustivo a dire il vero, di tutti gli strumenti che la società contemporanea usa per controllare la vita privata delle persone, oltre che delle situazioni in cui i nostri dati diventano di dominio pubblico. Molte cose sono note, ma messi così in fila rendono l'idea di come il fenomeno, quello del controllo, sia costitutivo della nostra società.
Lettura scorrevole per via dello stile parattatico dell'autore (a volte anche troppo), che rende accessibile a tutti la lettura. Tutti i riferimenti vengono posti alla fine del libro in una vasta bibliografia, anche se nel testo non ci sono note. Questo rende la lettura più facile, ma rende meno facile capire chi abbia detto cosa, rendendo così difficile la possibilità di approfondire determinati punti.
Lettura scorrevole per via dello stile parattatico dell'autore (a volte anche troppo), che rende accessibile a tutti la lettura. Tutti i riferimenti vengono posti alla fine del libro in una vasta bibliografia, anche se nel testo non ci sono note. Questo rende la lettura più facile, ma rende meno facile capire chi abbia detto cosa, rendendo così difficile la possibilità di approfondire determinati punti.
July 13, 2015
- excerpt: "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 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."
But, as the acclaimed social thinker Wolfgang Sofsky shows in this brief and powerful defense of 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."
April 23, 2009
A lot of good ideas, but ultimately the book strives to do too much in a short space. The first chapter paints a fascinating and terrifying portrait of how little privacy we actually have, but Sofsky's subsequent discussions remain unfocused because of his broad definition of privacy and a lack of suggested solutions. Manifesto is an apt description, more of a rant against our decreasing privacy and the evil governments/corporations trying to destroy it entirely than a plan of action.
August 19, 2009
This. Pretty much all of it. Not that it'll make a difference. Hell, I'm on Facebook.
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June 12, 2016n.b. : available as Le citoyen de verre : entre surveillance et exhibition
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews