Privacy: The Lost Right

The disturbing reality of contemporary life is that technology has laid bare the private facts of most people’s lives. Email, cell phone calls, and individual purchasing habits are no longer secret. Individuals may be discussed on a blog, victimized by an inaccurate credit report, or have their email read by an employer or government agency without their knowledge. Government policy, mass media, and modern technology pose new challenges to privacy rights, while the law struggles to keep up with the rapid changes. Privacy: The Lost Right evaluates the status of citizens’ right to privacy in today’s intrusive world. Mills reviews the history of privacy protections, the general loss of privacy, and the inadequacy of current legal remedies, especially with respect to more recent privacy concerns, such as identity theft, government surveillance, tabloid journalism, and video surveillance in public places. Mills concludes that existing regulations do not adequately protect individual privacy, and he presents options for improving privacy protections.