Privacy is one of the most important concepts of our time, yet it is also one of the most elusive. As rapidly changing technology makes information increasingly available, scholars, activists, and policymakers have struggled to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible.

In this concise and lucid book, Daniel J. Solove offers a comprehensive overview of the difficulties involved in discussions of privacy and ultimately provides a provocative resolution. He argues that no single definition can be workable, but rather that there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by family resemblances. His theory bridges cultural differences and addresses historical changes in views on privacy. Drawing on a broad array of interdisciplinary sources, Solove sets forth a framework for understanding privacy that provides clear, practical guidance for engaging with relevant issues.

Understanding Privacywill be an essential introduction to long-standing debates and an invaluable resource for crafting laws and policies about surveillance, data mining, identity theft, state involvement in reproductive and marital decisions, and other pressing contemporary matters concerning privacy.

One of the topic's most prolific and thoughtful thinkers, Daniel Solove has written a clear and comprehensive analysis of privacy. In it, he explains why it has been so hard to conceptualize this thing called privacy, and provides a pragmatic, bottom-up understanding. This book will promote sharper thinking and analysis for the next generation of privacy scholarship and policy.

Daniel Solove has had the patience and insight to lay privacy bare. This is the most thorough and persuasive conceptualization of privacy written to date. Solove's taxonomy of privacy will become the standard tool for analyzing privacy problems.

Daniel Solove offers a unique, challenging account of how to think better about-- and of-- privacy. No scholar in America is more committed to demystifying "the right to privacy".

Daniel J. Soloveis Associate Professor of Law at <>George Washington University Law School.

Preface

1. Privacy: A Concept in Disarray

Privacy: An Issue of Global Concern

Technology and the Rising Concern Over Privacy

The Concept of Privacy

A New Theory of Privacy

2. Conceptions of Privacy

Methods of Conceptualizing

Conceptions of Privacy

Can Privacy Be Conceptualized?

3. Reconstructing Privacy

Method

Generality

Variability

Focus

4. The Value of Privacy

The Virtues and Vices of Privacy

Theories of the Valuation of Privacy

The Social Value of Privacy

Privacy's Pluralistic Value

5. A Taxonomy of Privacy

The Need for a Taxonomy of Privacy

The Taxonomy

Information Collection

Information Processing

Information Dissemination

Invasion

6. Privacy: A New Understanding

The Nature of Privacy Problems

Privacy and Cultural Difference

The Benefits of a Pluralistic Conception of Privacy

The Future of Privacy

Notes

Index