The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age

Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, electronic databases are compiling information about you. As you surf the Internet, an unprecedented amount of your personal information is being recorded and preserved forever in the digital minds of computers. For each individual, these databases create a profile of activities, interests, and preferences used to investigate backgrounds, check credit, market products, and make a wide variety of decisions affecting our lives. The creation and use of these databases-which Daniel J. Solove calls "digital dossiers"-has thus far gone largely unchecked. In this startling account of new technologies for gathering and using personal data, Solove explains why digital dossiers pose a grave threat to our privacy.

The Digital Person sets forth a new understanding of what privacy is, one that is appropriate for the new challenges of the Information Age. Solove recommends how the law can be reformed to simultaneously protect our privacy and allow us to enjoy the benefits of our increasingly digital world.

The first volume in the series EX MACHINA: LAW, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

Acknowledgments1 Introduction I Computer Databases2 The Rise of the Digital Dossier 3 Kafka and Orwell: Reconceptualizing Information Privacy 4 The Problems of Information Privacy Law 5 The Limits of Market-Based Solutions 6 Architecture and the Protection of Privacy II Public Records7 The Problem of Public Records8 Access and Aggregation: Rethinking Privacy and Transparency III Government Access9 Government Information Gathering 10 The Fourth Amendment, Records, and Privacy11 Reconstructing the Architecture 12 Conclusion Notes IndexAbout the Author Contents