"Privacy is most certainly under pressure in all sorts of ways. Every day, the news brings a new harvest of horror stories-phone conversations, e-mail messages, and website visits surreptitiously recorded; sensitive medical records disseminated far and wide; consumers' credit charges abruptly raised through automated monitoring of their financial situations; air travelers turned away at departure gates because their names appear on lists whose origins cannot be explained; and on and on. But what is the larger trajectory of the trends at work here, and what can anyone expect to do about it? Any serious response to such questions requires some vision of the social, economic, and technological chemistry fueling pressures on privacy." Book jacket. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

As the author of a previous text on the right to privacy and as an honored professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, Rule is well qualified to prepare this book on modern threats to privacy rights. The author argues that the biggest threat to our privacy comes not from illegal government snooping but rather from perfectly legal uses of our data by business groups and the government. In exchange for providing government and private industry with much personal data, allegedly for our own protection, we also unwittingly create a climate by which these two entities can in effect spy on us. Such a state has mixed blessings. On the positive side the mass collection of personal data allows the business world to be more efficient (which indirectly benefits us), but it also lays the groundwork for many citizens to be hurt by this phenomenon. Some solutions are proposed, but Rule concedes that each has its own costs. This book may be compared with this text by the same author Private Lives and Public Surveillance (1974). The book is clearly written and contains an excellent bibliography and index. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by R. A. Carp. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

James B. Rule is Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Preface	ix
Part I The Making of an Issue	1
The Tensions of Privacy and Disclosure	6
Privacy Regimes in Turmoil	13
Blaming Technology	18
The Idea of Privacy Protection	22
Legislating Privacy Protection	28
Spreading Shadows	32
Constraints and Countercurrents	34
Part II Government Surveillance	39
Government Surveillance in America	43
Parallels Abroad	64
The Coalescence of Government Surveillance	82
Conclusion	91
Part III Personal Data in the Marketplace: Credit, Insurance, and Advertising	93
The United States: A Virtually Free Market for Personal Information	97
Markets Abroad: The American Model versus Privacy Constraints	114
Surveillance in Motion	132
Safe Harbor	136
Some Rare Privacy Victories	139
Conclusion	141
Part IV The Future of Privacy	143
Privacy Protection: The Official Response	147
Privacy Codes: A Balance Sheet	150
Origins of the Conflict	156
The Destination	162
Collapsing Resistance?	164
"Needs," "Purposes," and "Consent"	168
Some Uncomfortable Futures	174
Ground to Stand On	182
Conclusion: Where Do We Go from Here?	190
Appendix	203
Notes	205
Bibliography	211
Index	217

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.