Writing in a readable and fluid style, Wolfgang Sofsky shows just how important privacy is to modern life and, at the same time, just how endangered privacy has become. A reminder that to defend privacy is to defend democracy, individualism, and the good life, this book will interest anyone who has ever felt uneasy about how much governments and corporations know about us. -- Hans-Peter Muller, Humboldt University, Berlin
Chapter 1: Traces 1 Chapter 2: Power and Privacy 11 Chapter 3: Retrospectives 23 Chapter 4: Freedom and Privacy 30 Chapter 5: Territories of the Self 36 Chapter 6: Secrets of the Body 49 Chapter 7: Private Spaces 65 Chapter 8: Property 79 Chapter 9: Information 94 Chapter 10: Freedom of Thought 109 Notes 131
Wolfgang Sofsky's books include Violence: Terrorism, Genocide, War (Granta) and The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp (Princeton).
"Excellent... At once rhetorically sparse and alarming...Avoiding well-trodden ground, Sofsky is original in suffusing the physical abuses that the state perpetrates against the privacy of the individual."--AdamSmith.org blog "In this absorbing and upsetting little book, half pungent polemic and half meditation, Sofsky describes how, by means of CCTV cameras and the tracing of mobile phone calls, bus pass use, credit card purchases, e-mail, indeed in almost all ordinary interactions whether in shops or with bureaucracies, every individual is transparently and luminously traceable, leaving a glowing smear behind him as wide as a motorway, and as easy for anyone to follow if they wish... This is an important and very timely book. Its message, implied throughout, is that as one of the great values of civilisation and one of the essentials of personal and psychological integrity, privacy is worth fighting to regain."--A. C. Grayling, The Times (London) "A manifesto in the classic sense... [T]he author takes us on a personal journey that discusses the cultural roots of privacy, the origins of property and the pivotal nature of freedom of thought. Sofsky covers an enormous amount of territory on his voyage, and digs deep into our core social values to discuss the origins of our behaviours, interactions and innate needs."--John Gilbey, Nature "In a critique of the decline of personal privacy, Wolfgang Sofsky blames not technology, the government or fears of crime and terrorism but apathy by the citizenry, and a growing culture of fame seeking or a willingness to share private data... A very timely book, in this age of surveillance cameras, credit agencies, computerized tracking and even more, newer intrusions into our lives we don't even yet know about. Or sadder, probably freely signed up for."--Sacramento Book Review "In this spirited, if at times a little too generalised, defence of privacy, Sofsky rages against not only governmental and technological surveillance but also against the slackness of average citizens who have allowed, and even welcomed, this invasion of their souls."--Fiona Capp, The Age "Most accept the watching. Wolfgang Sofsky does not... We have allowed our privacy to be sacrificed to spurious promises of security and bureaucratic efficiency. Privacy, he argues in Privacy: A Manifesto, is the individual's fortress. It is an area free of domination, the only one under the individual's control."--Jock Given, Australian Literary Review "Sofksy's clear and precise language which shows the reader the issues concerning privacy forcefully. But above all, Sofsky's fundamental argumentation, starting from the body of an individual, is a valuable contribution to the discussion concerning the relationship between privacy and surveillance. It can serve as a stable fundament for discussions concerning the value of privacy which often only fall back on legal rules and their interpretation."--Georg Koppen, Metapsychology Online Reviews "The integrity of our personal lives has been so thoroughly compromised we hardly know what's public and what's private any more, what's important and what's not. Dazed by stimuli, we are immobilised in our decision-making. Sofsky, a German sociologist, calls for us to resist and reassert the powers of independent thought."--Miriam Cosic, Australian "The chief achievement of this book is to explain why privacy matters... Privacy: A Manifesto is as fine a defence of individual autonomy as you will find. You feel that Sofsky is not merely defending the idea of individual autonomy but has absorbed it as an ethic into his very bones."--Josie Appleton, Spiked Review of Books
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