Mind Your Own Business - Hardcover

Scott, Gini Graham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306449447 ISBN 13: 9780306449444

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1995

Synopsis

The 1990s are becoming known as the decade of privacy invasion due to myriad social and technological developments infringing upon our personal liberty - the information revolution, the growing fears about crime, the ongoing fight over health reform, the gossip-hungry media, the expansion of data banks, and a renewed concern with community standards. As a result, individuals and organized groups are fighting to hold onto independence and freedom against those trying to expose the private sector to public scrutiny.
Dr. Gini Graham Scott, a nationally recognized expert on personal privacy and other related issues, gives a shrewd overview of current privacy battles in and out of the courtroom that are directly influencing what can remain private. In addition, this book brilliantly delineates the growing impact of print and broadcast media - citing examples of early privacy skirmishes generated by the press back in the late 1800s, the extensive coverage of government communist witch-hunts and the anti-war/antiestablishment demonstrations and counterreactions during the 1960s, and today's transformation of news agencies into tabloid reporting - to show our current difficulties in controlling the scope and power of the media in their quest for information.
Mind Your Own Business skillfully steers an objective course in explaining recent controversial views within these battles, while advocating the right of individuals to maintain as much personal privacy protection as possible. This book will be of undeniable importance for sociologists, legal and medical professionals, individual rights' advocates, politicians, and anyone who wants the right to control what others do or do not have a right to know about themselves.

About this title

From Booklist

According to Scott, no matter where we are, somebody is probably watching us. Her book about contemporary and historic right-to-privacy battles gives testimony compelling enough to make anyone--not just committed paranoids--feel the itch of a gaze on the back of their neck. Citing federal and state court rulings, Scott tries to assess how far bosses, the press, junk-mailers, private investigators, police, and bureaucrats can trespass on an individual's desire to be left alone. Often the snoopers win particular disputes (e.g., as of 1993, employers can look with impunity into employees' E-mail, for no legislation prevents it), but individuals can still keep some personal information to themselves: generally, medical records are safe from unauthorized release, says Scott. Although privacy rights may change considerably in the near future, Scott's overview, not least for its list of privacy organizations and journals, is an important resource now. Aaron^I Cohen

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0306449447
• ISBN 13: 9780306449444
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 394