Review of On Privacy and Technology by Kirkus Reviews

I’m very pleased about the review of my new book, ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY, by Kirkus Reviews:

Solove reflects on the challenges posed by technology to privacy.

According to the author, a law professor specializing in intellectual property, the “dizzying pace of changing technologies” constitutes a profound challenge to the protection of privacy, one that largely has not been met with an adequate response. In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation of 2016 is a “grand achievement” and a “terrific law,” per Solove, but it still does not do enough, and the many laws around the globe modeled upon it are considerably less effective. At the heart of the problem, the author argues with an impressive blend of provocation and prudence, is a lot of muddled thinking about privacy—more specifically, the employment of metaphors that confuse rather than clarify. (For example, artificial intelligence is simply not intelligence—it’s just a lot of “math plus data.”) Moreover, contrary to the dystopian narrative famously proposed by George Orwell in 1984, the author observes that the surveillance of individuals is rarely noticed, and almost no one feels inhibited by it. In fact, Solove posits, the entire discussion about privacy is usually misconceived, and his searching treatise aims to set clear parameters for future debate. Ultimately, the author contends that protecting privacy is really about power: “The law can naively hope that virtue or restraint will do the work of regulation, that organizations will just do the right thing, that the lion will lay down with the lamb. In reality, however, power rarely yields to anything except power.” Solove is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School, and his expertise is beyond reproach. He’s been thinking about this important issue for a quarter century, and as a result his reflections achieve an admirable depth. For such a brief study—the book is not much longer than 100 pages—an extraordinary expanse of intellectual territory is traversed with rigor and subtlety.

A stimulating overview of one of the central issues of our time.

Order
ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY

* * *

This post was authored by Professor Daniel J. Solove, who through TeachPrivacy develops computer-based privacy and data security training.

NEWSLETTER: Subscribe to Professor Solove’s free newsletter