Product Description
"Anyone concerned with preserving privacy against technology's growing intrusiveness will find this book enlightening."
—Publishers Weekly
"Solove . . . truly understands the intersection of law and technology. This book is a fascinating journey into the almost surreal ways personal information is hoarded, used, and abused in the digital age."
—The Wall Street Journal
"Solove is one of the most energetic and creative scholars writing about privacy today."
—Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age
"Powerful theme."
—Privacy Journal
"This is not only a book you should read, but you should make sure your friends read it."
—IEEE Review
"Solove offers a book that is both comprehensive and easy to understand, discussing the changes that technology has brought to our concept of privacy. An excellent starting point for much needed discussion."
—Law Technology News
"An unusually perceptive discussion of one of the most vexing problems of the digital age—our loss of control over our personal information. It's a fascinating journey into the almost surreal ways personal information is hoarded, used, and abused in the digital age. I recommend his book highly."
—Bruce Schneier
"Solove drives his points home through considerable reconfiguration of the basic argument. Rather than casting blame or urging retreat to a precomputer database era, the solution is seen in informing individuals, challenging data collectors, and bringing the law up-to-date."
—Choice
"If you want to find out what a mess the law of privacy is, how it got that way, and whether there is hope for the future, then read this book."
—Legal Times
"Solove evaluates the shortcomings of current approaches to privacy as well as some useful and controversial ideas for striking a new balance. Anyone who deals with privacy matters will find a lot ot consider."
—DM News
"Solove's treatment of this particular facet is thoughtful, thorough, concise, and occasionally laced with humor. The present volume gives us reason to look forward to his future contributions."
—The Law and Politics Book Review
"Solove's book is useful, particularly as an overview on how these private and government databases grew in sophistication and now interact with one another."
—Christian Science Monitor
"A far-reaching examination of how digital dossiers are shaping our lives. Daniel Solove has persuasively reconceptualized privacy for the digital age. A must-read."
—Paul Schwartz, Brooklyn Law School
"The Digital Person is a detailed and approachable resource on privacy issues and the laws that affect them."
—IT Conversations
Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, electronic databases are compiling information about you. As you surf the Internet, an unprecedented amount of your personal information is being recorded and preserved forever in the digital minds of computers. For each individual, these databases create a profile of activities, interests, and preferences used to investigate backgrounds, check credit, market products, and make a wide variety of decisions affecting our lives. The creation and use of these databases—which Daniel J. Solove calls "digital dossiers"—has thus far gone largely unchecked. In this startling account of new technologies for gathering and using personal data, Solove explains why digital dossiers pose a grave threat to our privacy.
The Digital Person sets forth a new understanding of what privacy is, one that is appropriate for the new challenges of the Information Age. Solove recommends how the law can be reformed to simultaneously protect our privacy and allow us to enjoy the benefits of our increasingly digital world.
The first volume in the series EX MACHINA: LAW, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY