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What is Privacy?
a state in which one is not
observed or disturbed by others (Oxford English Dictionary)
the quality or condition of being secluded from the presence
or view of others (American Heritage Dictionary) freedom
from unauthorized intrusion (Merriam-Websters Dictionary)
Three basic meanings of Privacy:
Seclusion:
the right to be hidden from the perceptions of others
Solitude: the
right to be left alone
Self-determination:
the right to control information about oneself
The Patriot Act, government eavesdropping,
the distribution of our most personal information recent
security breaches and marketing-related invasions have affected
the privacy of millions of Americans. So who has access
to this information about us and what exactly are they doing
with it? This question touches almost every aspect of our
lives from control over our finances and identities to the
(assumed) basic right to keep our thoughts, actions, medical
histories, whereabouts, and other personal information to
ourselves.
Privacy
Lost closely examines privacy infringements from
targeted behavioral marketing to government actions condoned
by The Patriot Act counter-terrorism programs utilizing
electronic probing of US citizens on an unprecedented scale.
None of these activities would be possible without the availability
of sophisticated information technologies such as data-mining
programs that are used to sift through the rapidly growing
data heaps of our newly digitized civilization.
We cannot afford to ignore this issue.
This book and website aims to help everyone understand what
is at risk in the Digital Age, who the perpetrators are,
what can be done about it, and how and why, to some extent,
our privacy is already lost.
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