Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability

None of your business! People seeking to keep their private lives from scrutiny often fall back on those four words. But, Anita L. Allen explains, we are every bit as accountable for our private actions as for our public deeds. Why Privacy Isn’t Everything addresses the New Accountability, whereby private investigators probe potential employees and failure to pay child support can land a parent in prison. This book defends accountability for private life; accountability, Allen says, protects, dignifies, and advantages. Allen goes on to ponder how a liberal, democratic society can balance the competing demands of vital privacy and vital accountability. While emphasizing the centrality of accountability, she advocates new ideals of accountability consistent with contemporary reconstructions of liberalism.