I enjoy collecting things related to privacy as well as seeing how privacy is described and depicted throughout different times in history.
I collected about 50 magazine covers involving privacy from 1950s to the present. I’m excited to share my collection with you. If you have any covers I’ve missed, please share them with me.
I also have a collection of magazine covers involving AI, computers, and the internet that I’ll be sharing later.
I’ll begin with a quick look, then I’ll include larger images later.
1950-1959
Time, July 14, 1952
House and Garden, January 1957
1960-1969
New Yorker, February 11, 1961
Life, May 20, 1966
1970-1979
Newsweek, July 27, 1970
Time, October 11, 1971
Saturday Review, April 17, 1971
Newsweek, June 23, 1975
New York, May 3, 1976
Saturday Review, July 21, 1979
1980-1989
Byte, September 1980
Ms. Magazine, February 1981
U.S. News & World Report, July 12, 1982
Time, November 28, 1983
Mad (UK Edition), January 1984
Awake, February 22, 1988
Discover, March 1988
1990-1999
Time, November 11, 1991
Time, October 13, 1997
The New Yorker, August 24 & 31, 1998
The New Yorker, January 11, 1999
The Economist, May 1-7, 1999
2000-2009
Time, July 31, 2000
Time, July 2, 2001
Time, December 25, 2006
Scientific American, September 2008
I have a particular fondness for this issue because I wrote an article in it.
2010-2019
The Week, May 14, 2011
The New Yorker, June 24, 2013
Mad, October 2013
Newsweek, April 25, 2014
WIRED, September 2014
Time, March 21, 2015
Science, January 2015
Freedom, May 2015
MIT Technology Review 2018
National Geographic, February 2018
PC & Tech Authority, May 2018
Computer Shopper, April 2018
Bloomberg Businessweek, April 23, 2018
The Telegraph Magazine, December 2019
2020-present
MIT Technology Review, Jan/Feb 2020
Newsweek, May 22, 2020
Time, May 30, 2020
NYT Mag, March 21, 2021
April 24-May 1, 2023
New Scientist, August 26, 2023
MIT Technology Review, April 2023
Comment, Spring 2025
Wired, Mar/Apr 2026
Mad, February 2026
* * * *
Daniel J. Solove is the Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School. He is the founder of TeachPrivacy, a company that provides workforce privacy, cybersecurity security, and AI training to companies and organizations around the world. He is the author of 10+ books and 100+ articles.
You can follow his events, writings, training, cartoons, and resources by subscribing to his free weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to Solove’s Free Substack
A supplement to Solove’s regular newsletter with more in-depth discussions
