Social Dimensions Of Privacy

An interdisciplinary group of privacy scholars explores social meaning and value of privacy in new privacy-sensitive areas.

An interdisciplinary group of privacy scholars explores social meaning and value of privacy in new privacy-sensitive areas.

This collection of essays makes readily accessible many of the most significant and influential discussions of privacy.

The Handbook of Privacy Studies is the first book in the world that brings together several disciplinary perspectives on privacy, such as the legal, ethical, medical, informatics and anthropological perspective. Privacy is in the news almost every day: mass surveillance by intelligence agencies, the use of social media data for commercial profit and political microtargeting, password hacks and identity theft, new data protection regimes, questionable reuse of medical data, and concerns about how algorithms shape the way we think and decide. This book offers interdisciplinary background information about these developments and how to understand and properly evaluate them. The book is set up for use in interdisciplinary educational programmes. Each chapter provides a structured analysis of the role of privacy within that discipline, its characteristics, themes and debates, as well as current challenges. Disciplinary approaches are presented in such a way that students and researchers from every scientific background can follow the argumentation and enrich their own understanding of privacy issues.

Privacy is one of the most urgent issues associated with information technology and digital media. This book claims that what people really care about when they complain and protest that privacy has been violated is not the act of sharing information itself—most people understand that this is crucial to social life —but the inappropriate, improper sharing of information. Arguing that privacy concerns should not be limited solely to concern about control over personal information, Helen Nissenbaum counters that information ought to be distributed and protected according to norms governing distinct social contexts—whether it be workplace, health care, schools, or among family and friends. She warns that basic distinctions between public and private, informing many current privacy policies, in fact obscure more than they clarify. In truth, contemporary information systems should alarm us only when they function without regard for social norms and values, and thereby weaken the fabric of social life.

Drawing on a wide range of literature in moral and political philosophy, law, cognitive and social psychology, and anthropology (not to mention some very perceptive readings of novels by Henry James), Professor Schoeman shows how the aim of moral philosophy ought to be to understand our social character, not to establish fortifications against it in the name of rationality and autonomy.

The challenges faced by privacy laws in changing technological, commercial and social environments are considered in this broad-ranging 2006 examination of privacy law. The book encompasses three overlapping areas of analysis: privacy protection under the general law; legislative measures for data protection in digital communications networks; and the influence of transnational agreements and other pressures toward harmonised privacy standards. Leading, internationally recognised authors discuss developments across these three areas in the UK, Europe, the US, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Australia and New Zealand. Chapters draw on doctrinal and historical analysis of case law, theoretical approaches to both freedom of speech and privacy, and the interaction of law and communications technologies in order to examine present and future challenges to law's engagement with privacy.

Security and Privacy in Social Networks brings to the forefront innovative approaches for analyzing and enhancing the security and privacy dimensions in online social networks, and is the first comprehensive attempt dedicated entirely to this field. In order to facilitate the transition of such methods from theory to mechanisms designed and deployed in existing online social networking services, the book aspires to create a common language between the researchers and practitioners of this new area- spanning from the theory of computational social sciences to conventional security and network engineering.