Privacy in a Cyber Age ─ Policy and Practice

The advent of the cyber age fundamentally changed the privacy issue: the main threat now is no longer what personal information about you is collected by various surveillance systems of the government (or corporations)—but of what use this information is put to. This is because as long as information was paper locked, there were, as a rule, "natural" built-in limits to secondary use and, hence, abuse. Now once collected, information can very often be accessed and misused by anyone in the world. Hence this book lays out the foundations for a privacy doctrine suitable to the cyber age. It limits the volume, sensitivity, and secondary analysis that can be carried out by the government. Moreover the book examines the implications of the fact that personal information collected by corporations is now also available to the FBI, IRS, CIA and other government agencies. In studying these matters, the book examines the privacy issues raised by the NSA, media publication of state secrets, and the secondary usages of DNA.

Amitai Etzioni is University Professor and Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University, USA. He previously served as a Senior Advisor at the Carter White House; taught at Columbia University, USA, Harvard University, USA and the University of California at Berkeley, USA; and served as the President of the American Sociological Association, USA. A study by Richard Posner ranked him among the top 100 American intellectuals. He is the author of numerous books, including The Moral Dimension and My Brother's Keeper and The New Normal: Life in Post Affluence America.