The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity and Love in the Digital Age

Description

An urgent expose into how our modern digital lives place our privacy under threat - giving us a new understanding of how we can (and why we should) fight for it 'Devastating and urgent, this book could not be more timely' Caroline Criado Perez Danielle Citron takes the conversation about technology and privacy out of the boardrooms and op-eds to reach readers where we are - in our bathrooms and bedrooms; with our families and our lovers; in all the parts of our lives we assume are untouchable - and shows us that privacy, as we think we know it, is largely already gone. The boundary that once protected our intimate lives from outside interests is an artefact of the twentieth century. In the twenty-first, we have embraced a vast array of technology that enables constant access and surveillance of the most private aspects of our lives. From non-consensual pornography, to online extortion, to the sale of our data for profit, we are vulnerable to abuse. As Citron reveals, wherever we live, laws have failed miserably to keep up with corporate or individual violators, letting our privacy wash out with the technological tide. And the erosion of intimate privacy in particular, Citron argues, holds immense toxic power to transform our lives and our societies for the worse (and already has). With vivid examples drawn from interviews with victims, activists and lawmakers from around the world, The Fight for Privacy reveals the threat we face and argues urgently and forcefully for a reassessment of privacy as a human right. And, as a legal scholar and expert, Danielle Citron is the perfect person to show us the way to a happier, better protected future.

Danielle Citron is the inaugural Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law at the University of Virginia School of Law (UVA), where she teaches and writes about information privacy, free expression, and civil rights. She has garnered awards nationally and internationally and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2019 based on her work on cyber stalking and sexual privacy. In 2015, Prospect magazine named Professor Citron one of the "Top 50 World Thinkers". Her book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace was named one of the "20 Best Moments for Women in 2014" by Cosmopolitan magazine. She has published more than 40 law review articles, and has written for major media outlets such as the New York Times, the Guardian and Wired. Professor Citron is a member of Facebook's Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery Task Force and an advisor since 2011, and a member of Twitter's Trust and Safety Task Force and an adviser to the company since 2009. She has also advised Kamala Harris and the UK government, and on campaigns internationally on privacy, free expression and civil rights. daniellecitron.com @daniellecitron

It's so refreshing to read an argument for privacy that centres women - Citron presents a crucial analysis that has been sorely missing from this important debate until now. Devastating and urgent, this book could not be more timely -- Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women The Fight for Privacy is nothing less than the battle to keep our intimate, private selves free from exploitation. A vitally important book -- Cordelia Fine, author of A Mind Of Its Own Danielle Keats Citron has given us a crucial book for understanding the crisis of privacy invasion, and the unrelenting damage that comes from intimate, nonconsensual surveillance. This book should be required reading for every policy maker, parent, or person who wants to reimagine privacy protections. If you care about anyone, anywhere, you should read this book -- Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression Professor Citron - the brilliant, ground-breaking law professor and civil rights advocate - continues her important and impactful work in helping governments, society, and the titans of the technology sector to understand that our collective failure to protect our intimate privacy amounts to a massive failing to protect our basic civil rights. Through heart-breaking accounts form victims, a careful and detailed exposition of how a range of technologies are being weaponized against us, and a detailed review of the ethical and legal landscape governing these issues, The Fight for Privacy is a must read by anyone who cares about civil rights -- Hany Farid, UC Berkeley This is a terrific, though terrifying, expose about how often our intimate activities and intimate information about us end up on social media. Professor Danielle Citron makes a compelling case for a 'right to intimate privacy' under the law. This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience and hopefully will inspire needed meaningful change in the law * Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law * When your wristwatch monitors your location and your health status and your window-shopping and purchases generate information sold and combined with other information about you, the accumulation of 'little assents' produce constant surveillance, risks of manipulation, and the elimination of privacy. Danielle Citron's expert and engaging treatment of 'technology-enabled privacy violations' shows why victims, digital platforms, and legislators alike turn to her for advice and for fights to reclaim privacy morally, legally, and practically -- Martha Minow, former Dean, Harvard Law School Privacy is politics, and if we want it back we must fight for it. In this open-hearted and down-to-earth book Danielle Citron offers reasons for optimism among the ruins of our once cherished privacy. She details the devastating effects of the loss of 'intimate privacy' and argues that new rights and laws for the digital age are both long overdue and within our grasp. Lawmakers and citizens alike, this book is for you -- Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School Danielle Citron's book makes privacy undeniably and uncomfortably personal, shining a light on the ways technology is used to pry open the most intimate corners of our lives. Hers is a powerful and urgent manifesto for the protection of "intimate privacy" in the United States and beyond -- Susie Alegre, author of Freedom to Think, international human rights lawyer The Fight for Privacy is a tour de force. Arguing convincingly that our intimate privacy is a moral necessity being eroded in frightening and accelerating ways, Citron offers trenchant clarity and lucid hope for achieving justice in our digital future. A must read -- Kate Manne, author of Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women