Understanding Privacy

Privacy is a notoriously slippery concept, and this book begins by mapping why conversations about it so often stall. Daniel J. Solove, a law professor at George Washington University Law School, surveys the many obstacles that make the subject hard to pin down.

Solove's central claim is that privacy cannot be captured by one definition that works in every case. Instead, he proposes that it comes in several distinct forms, linked to each other the way members of a family share overlapping traits without a single feature they all have in common. This approach, he argues, can account for how attitudes toward privacy differ across cultures and shift over time.

Drawing on research from many disciplines, Solove builds a framework meant to help readers think through privacy questions in practice. The result is a guide for approaching real issues concerning personal information and social life, rather than an abstract philosophical exercise alone.