Read complete books and articles on: Privacy

Privacy, Right Of - the right to be left alone without unwarranted intrusion by government, media, or other institutions or individuals. While a consensus supporting the right to privacy has emerged (all recently confirmed Justices to the Supreme Court have affirmed their belief in the right to privacy), the extent of the right, and its basis in constitutional law, remain hotly contested. It was not until the U.S Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which voided a state statute preventing the use of contraceptives, that the modern doctrine of privacy emerged. In his opinion, Justice William O. Douglas argued that a protection from state intrusion into marital privacy was a constitutional right, one that was a "penumbra" emanating from the specific guarantees of the constitution. The right to sexual privacy as set forth in Griswold was one of the main foundations of the court's decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) to overturn state abortion statutes. Later attempts to extend the right of privacy to consensual homosexual acts in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) were initially rejected by the court. In 2003, however, the court reversed that decision and rejected all antisodomy laws.

The Privacy Act of 1974 provides for disclosure of, and personal access to, all federal records containing personal information, regulates their transfer to others, and allows for legal remedies in cases of their misuse under the law. The Right to Financial Privacy Act (1978) limits federal access to financial records but places few restrictions on access by states, businesses, and others. The privacy of most other information is not guaranteed. Computer and telecommunications advances have made credit, medical, and other data a readily available, highly marketable commodity, raising many concerns about individuals' privacy. Although the European Union in 1998 severely limited the buying and selling of personal data, these practices have been generally allowed under U.S. law. Limits exist on the federal government's ability to intercept voice and data communications; these are established by law and related to the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches (see search, right of).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Privacy

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Privacy as a Constitutional Right: Sex, Drugs, and the Right to Life » Read Now
by Darien A. McWhirter, Jon D. Bible. 214 pgs.

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The United States Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade. When it does, that decision may be as important as the Dred Scott decision a century and a half ago. During the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas the focus was on the constitutional right to privacy and abortion. No...
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The United States Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade. When it does, that decision may be as important as the Dred Scott decision a century and a half ago. During the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas the focus was on the constitutional right to privacy and abortion. No legal concept has been more controversial and has had such a significant impact on the lives of millions of Americans. This book provides an understandable overview of the Supreme Court decisions concerned with privacy issues such as sex, drugs, abortion, and the right to die. The legal evolution of the constitutional right to privacy is explored with every significant Supreme Court decision explained along the way. This book begins with an overview of the legal history that has led to the development of a constitutional right to privacy. The relationship between morality and law, from the Hittites to the Puritans, is presented, as is the impact of the ideas of philosophers such as Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Mill, along with an overview of the concepts of Natural Law and Natural Rights. The development of the right to privacy in American Common law is presented, and the important Supreme Court decisions on privacy from Griswold to Roe v. Wade are discussed in detail.
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2.

The Limits of Privacy » Read Now
by Amitai Etzioni. 280 pgs.

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Focusing on flashpoint issues such as mandatory HIV testing of infants, encryption of electronic documents, national identification cards and medical records - this book argues that some things should outweigh the right to privacy.
3.

Your Right to Privacy: A Basic Guide to Legal Rights in an Information Society » Read Now
by Evan Hendricks, Trudy Hayden, Jack D. Novik. 186 pgs.

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...Oregon, is editor/ publisher of Privacy Times , a Washington-based biweekly newsletter that covers privacy and freedom of information law. A graduate...Hayden is formerly...
4.

The Private Self » Read Now
by Arnold H. Modell. 252 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

The concept of the self is the subject of intense debate in psychoanalysis - as it is in neuro-science, cognitive science, and philosophy. In The Private Self Arnold Modell, a leading thinker in American psychoanalysis, studies selfhood from the inside by examining variations on the theme of the...
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The concept of the self is the subject of intense debate in psychoanalysis - as it is in neuro-science, cognitive science, and philosophy. In The Private Self Arnold Modell, a leading thinker in American psychoanalysis, studies selfhood from the inside by examining variations on the theme of the self in Freud and in the work of object relations theorists, self psychologists, and neuro-scientists. His significant contribution is an interdisciplinary perspective in formulating a theory of the private self. Modell contends that the self is fundamentally paradoxical in that it is both dependent and autonomous - dependent upon social affirmation, but autonomous in generating itself from within: we create ourselves by selecting values that are endowed with private meanings. (Modell presents an extensive view of these self-generative and self-creative aspects.) The private self is an embodied self: the psychology of the self is rooted in biology. By thinking of the unconscious as a neurophysiological process and the self as the subject and object of its own experience, Modell is able to explain how identity can persist in the flux of consciousness. In arriving at his unique synthesis of psychoanalytic observations and neurobiological theory, Modell draws on the contributions of Donald Winnicott in psychoanalysis, William James in philosophy, and Gerald Edelman in neurobiology. The Private Self boldly explores the frontier between psychoanalysis and biology. In replacing the "instinct-driven" self and the "attachment-oriented" self with the "self-generating" self, the author offers an exciting and original perspective for our understanding of the mind and the brain.
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5.

Liberty, Property, and Privacy: Toward a Jurisprudence of Substantive Due Process » Read Now
by Edward Keynes. 240 pgs.

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A review of the evolution of due-process jurisprudence in the United States.
In this book, Edward Keynes examines the fundamental-rights philosophy and jurisprudence that affords constitutional protection to unenumerated liberty, property, and privacy rights. He is critical of the failure of the U.S...
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A review of the evolution of due-process jurisprudence in the United States.
In this book, Edward Keynes examines the fundamental-rights philosophy and jurisprudence that affords constitutional protection to unenumerated liberty, property, and privacy rights. He is critical of the failure of the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt a coherent theory for identifying which rights are to be considered fundamental and how these private rights are to be balanced against the public interests that the government has a duty to articulate and promote.
Keynes develops his argument by first surveying how substantive due process grew out of the tradition of Anglo-American jurisprudence and came to evolve over time. He pays special attention to the shift in its application early in the twentieth century, from protecting "liberty of contract" against economic regulation to protecting "privacy" and other noneconomic rights (as in Roe v. Wade) against social regulation.
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6.

Law, Morality and the Private Domain » Read Now
by Raymond Wacks. 348 pgs.

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7.

Data Privacy in the Information Age » Read Now
by Jacqueline Klosek. 264 pgs.

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Passage of the European Data Protection Directive and other national laws have increased the need for companies and other entities to improve their data protection and privacy controls. Clients, stakeholders, and the public are clamoring for it. Klosek introduces the various legal means to protect...
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Passage of the European Data Protection Directive and other national laws have increased the need for companies and other entities to improve their data protection and privacy controls. Clients, stakeholders, and the public are clamoring for it. Klosek introduces the various legal means to protect personal data in the United States and the European Union, targeting her book at American and international businesses that may have difficulty complying with the European Directive. She explains its main elements and practical effects, presents primary components of national privacy laws abroad and in the United States, and gives advice on some steps companies can take to improve the level of protection they afford to the data they possess.
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8.

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose between Privacy and Freedom? » Read Now
by David Brin. 378 pgs.

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A respected futurist advances an argument sure to cause debate -- In a wired world, the best way to preserve our freedom will be to give up our privacy
The Government and the Online Community snipe endlessly over privacy issues: encryption software, the Clipper Chip, Web sites recording your...
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A respected futurist advances an argument sure to cause debate -- In a wired world, the best way to preserve our freedom will be to give up our privacy
The Government and the Online Community snipe endlessly over privacy issues: encryption software, the Clipper Chip, Web sites recording your interests and purchases, the need for online anonymity. But award-winning author David Brin asks, What's so great about privacy? We could all be much better off in a society where everyone (not just the government, and not just the rich) could look over everyone else's shoulders.
The Transparent Society details the startling argument that privacy, far from being a right, hampers the real foundation of a civil society: accountability. Using examples as disparate as security cameras in Scotland and Gay Pride events in Tucson, Brin argues that openness is far more liberating than secrecy. The biggest threat to our society, he warns, is that surveillance technology will be used by too few people, not by too many.
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9.

The Right to Privacy: Gays, Lesbians, and the Constitution » Read Now
by Vincent J. Samar. 258 pgs.

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...THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY Gays, Lesbians, and the Constitution THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY Gays, Lesbians, and the Constitution...Samar, Vincent Joseph, 1953- The right to privacy :...
10.

Privacy, Intimacy, and Isolation » Read Now
by Julie C. Inness. 157 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

Privacy is a puzzling concept. From the backyard to the bedroom, everyday life gives rise to an abundance of privacy claims. In the legal sphere, privacy is invoked with respect to issues including abortion, marriage, and sexuality. Yet privacy is surrounded by a mire of theoretical debate. Certain...
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Privacy is a puzzling concept. From the backyard to the bedroom, everyday life gives rise to an abundance of privacy claims. In the legal sphere, privacy is invoked with respect to issues including abortion, marriage, and sexuality. Yet privacy is surrounded by a mire of theoretical debate. Certain philosophers argue that privacy is neither conceptually nor morally distinct from other interests, while numerous legal scholars point to the apparently disparate interests involved in constitutional and tort privacy law. By arguing that intimacy is the core of privacy, including privacy law, Inness undermines privacy skepticism, providing a strong theoretical foundation for many of our everyday and legal privacy claims, including the controversial constitutional right to privacy.
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11.

Privacy and the Politics of Intimate Life » Read Now
by Patricia Boling. 192 pgs.

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12.

Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture » Read Now
by Clay Calvert. 274 pgs.

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Clay Calvert is an assistant professor of communications and law and co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at the Pennsylvania State University.
13.

Genetic Privacy: A Challenge to Medico-Legal Norms » Read Now
by Graeme Laurie. 335 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

The issue of rights to genetic information is considered in this study from the standpoint of individuals, their relatives, employers, insurers and the state. Graeme Laurie provides a concept of privacy and property rights for the person, and argues for stronger legal protection following new...
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The issue of rights to genetic information is considered in this study from the standpoint of individuals, their relatives, employers, insurers and the state. Graeme Laurie provides a concept of privacy and property rights for the person, and argues for stronger legal protection following new developments in genetics. This book will interest lawyers, philosophers and doctors concerned with genetic information and issues of privacy, as well as genetic counselors, researchers and policy makers worldwide for its practical position on dilemmas in modern genetic medicine.
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14.

Transforming Privacy: A Transpersonal Philosophy of Rights » Read Now
by Stefano Scoglio. 266 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Using an innovative history of the constitutional right to privacy, and inspired by Emersonian Justices like Brandeis and Douglas, this book rescues the meaning of privacy from prevalent liberal thinking by proposing a general theory of rights based on a spiritual-ecological jurisprudence tradition...
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Using an innovative history of the constitutional right to privacy, and inspired by Emersonian Justices like Brandeis and Douglas, this book rescues the meaning of privacy from prevalent liberal thinking by proposing a general theory of rights based on a spiritual-ecological jurisprudence tradition at the heart of American law. The right to privacy is a powerful, yet often overlooked tradition, whose main representatives are Justice Brandeis and Justice Douglas, both of whom translated into concretely legal and political ideas the philosophy of American thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau. In light of this historical understanding, the major constitutional cases relating to privacy, such as Griswold or Roe v. Wade, are given new interpretations. Through a radical reinterpretation of Mill's philosophy of liberty, and a comparison of that reinterpretation with the one of Brandeis, this book proposes a new general theory of rights, based on the valuation of privacy as a transformative context in whichself-knowledge can emerge, giving birth to ethical and communal responsibility.
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15.

Loving Big Brother: Performance, Privacy, and Surveillance Space » Read Now
by John E. Mcgrath. 246 pgs.

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In Loving Big Brother the author tackles head on the overstated claims of the crime-prevention and anti-terrorism lobbies. But he also argues that we desire and enjoy surveillance, and that, if we can understand why this is, we may transform the effect it has on our lives. This book looks at a...
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In Loving Big Brother the author tackles head on the overstated claims of the crime-prevention and anti-terrorism lobbies. But he also argues that we desire and enjoy surveillance, and that, if we can understand why this is, we may transform the effect it has on our lives. This book looks at a wide range of performance and visual artists, at popular TV shows and movies, and at our day-to-day encounters with surveillance, rooting its arguments in an accessible reading of cultural theory.Constant scrutiny by surveillance cameras is usually seen as - at best - an invasion of privacy, and at worst an infringement of human rights. But in this radical new account of the uses of surveillance in art, performance and popular culture, John E McGrath sets out a surprizing alternative: a world where we have much to gain from the experience of being watched.This iconoclastic book develops a notion of surveillance space - somewhere beyond the public and the private, somewhere we will all soon live. It's a place we're just beginning to understand.
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16.

Regulating Intimacy: A New Legal Paradigm » Read Now
by Jean L. Cohen. 290 pgs.

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The regulation of intimate relationships has been a key battleground in the culture wars of the past three decades. In this bold and innovative book, Jean Cohen presents a new approach to regulating intimacy that promises to defuse the tensions that have long sparked conflict among legislators...
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The regulation of intimate relationships has been a key battleground in the culture wars of the past three decades. In this bold and innovative book, Jean Cohen presents a new approach to regulating intimacy that promises to defuse the tensions that have long sparked conflict among legislators, jurists, activists, and scholars.Disputes have typically arisen over questions that apparently set the demands of personal autonomy, justice, and responsibility against each other. Can law stay out of the bedroom without shielding oppression and abuse? Can we protect the pursuit of personal happiness while requiring people to behave responsibly toward others? Can regulation acknowledge a variety of intimate relationships without privileging any? Must regulating intimacy involve a clash between privacy and equality? Cohen argues that these questions have been impossible to resolve because most legislators, activists, and scholars have drawn on an anachronistic conception of privacy, one founded on the idea that privacy involves secrecy and entails a sphere free from legal regulation. In response, Cohen draws on Habermas and other European thinkers to present a robust "constructivist" defense of privacy, one based on the idea that norms and rights are legally constructed.Cohen roots her arguments in debates over three particularly contentious issues: reproductive rights, sexual orientation, and sexual harassment. She shows how a new legal framework, "reflexive law," allows us to build on constructivist insights to approach these debates free from the liberal and welfarist paradigms that usually structure our legal thought. This new legal paradigm finally allows us to dissolve the tensions among autonomy, equality, and community that have beset us. A synthesis of feminist theory, political theory, constitutional jurisprudence, and cutting-edge research in the sociology of law, this powerful work will reshape not only legal and political debates, but how we think about the intimate relationships at the core of our own lives. .
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