Privacy and the Digital State

Alan Charles Raul

ISBN 10: 0792375807 / ISBN 13: 9780792375807

Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, US, 2001

About this Item

The terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 have greatly affected our lives, our livelihoods, and perhaps our way of living. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights were designed to inhibit excessively powerful government. But now, we are counting on it to prevent Americans from being killed with impunity, and to "insure domestic tranquility". In these times, the government must concentrate more on protecting concrete lives than protecting intangible privacy. The subject of this book - privacy - is where the conflict among our competing interests after September 11 is likely to be sharpest. "The right to be let alone", pales next to the right not to be blown-up. So "privacy" will inevitably need to accommodate security and safety to a greater extent than before September 11. But for America to continue being America, our constitutional mandates must still be genuinely respected.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780792375807

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Privacy and the Digital State
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers, US
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792375807
• ISBN 13: 9780792375807
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Alan Charles Raul The devastating and reprehensible acts of terrorism committed against the 11, 2001 have greatly affected our lives, our United States on September livelihoods, and perhaps our way of living. The system of government embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights was designed to inhibit excessively efficient government. By imposing checks and balances against over-reaching governmental power, the Founders intended to promote the rule of laws, not men - and to protect the prerogatives of citizens over and above their rulers. No faction was to become so powerful that the rights and interests of any other groups or individuals could be easily trampled. Specifically, the Framers of our constitutional structure prohibited the government from suppressing speech, inhibiting the right of free association, of people, conducting unreasonable preventing (peaceful) assemblies searches and seizures, or acting without observing the dictates of due process and fair play. After September 11, there is a risk that the philosophical protections of the Constitution could appear more than a trifle "academic. " Indeed, our tradional notions of "fair play" will be sorely tested in the context of our compelling requirements for effective self-defense against brutal, evil killers who hate the very idea of America. Now that we witness the grave physical dangers that confront our families, friends, neighbors, and businesses, our commitment to limited government and robust individual liberties will of our inevitably - and understandably - be challenged.

Review

`A thoughtful analysis of a thorny problem. Balancing privacy and the need to know in an open society has been made much harder and more complicated by digital-age technology. Alan Raul helps us find a way through the thicket.'
Evan Thomas, Newsweek
`Protecting the privacy personal information in the Internet era has become the hottest issue in Washington. Alan Raul does a brilliant job charting that mine field, dissecting the legal arguments and showing which issues require vigorous government action, and which don't. This book is a must read for anyone with a Social Security number.'
Alan Murray, author of The Wealth of Choices