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Book reviews [1999] PLBIRp 46

Book Reviews

Visions of Privacy: Policy choices for the Digital Age

The book, published in April, includes a compilation of essays first presented at an international privacy conference entitled Visions for Privacy in the Twenty-first Century: A Search for Solutions. The conference, organised in 1996 in Canada by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia and the University of Victoria, attracted an impressive range of privacy advocates, whose papers discuss whether privacy solutions of the past will be sufficient to meet the privacy challenges of the future.

Contributors include Dr David Flaherty, the then Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, Canada, Professor Charles Raab, Edinburgh University, Dr Ann Cavoukian, Ontario Privacy Commissioner, Robert Gellman, Privacy & Information Policy Consultant, Professor Joel Reidenberg, Fordham Unversity and Professor Mary Culnan, Georgetown University.

The book, edited by Associate Professors Colin J. Bennett and Rebecca Grant of the University of Victoria, consists of thirteen essays, which give the reader a clear picture of the variety of privacy challenges the regulators are now facing. The essays discuss privacy problems in several different sectors (mainly in North-America) such as marketing and health, the technological tools available, and the policy choices adopted.

The book gives a clear picture of the privacy debate in the midnineties. While there have been some technological developments since then, the privacy issues are still much the same. The essays put these everyday problems into their legal, political, social and economic contexts, providing the reader with an insight into the kind of future we are facing in terms of privacy and surveillance.

European orders can be sent to: Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 SD, Tel: + 44 (0) 1235 465 500, Fax: + 44 (0) 1235 465 555. Price for paperback edition: £15. ISBN: 0-8020-8050-2. Orders from the rest of the world: University of Toronto Press, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, ON, M3H 5T8, Tel: + 1 800 565 9523, Fax: + 1 800 221 9985. Paperback edition: US$22.95

The Limits of Privacy

"Accompanied by his wife and nineyear- old son, John Becerra moved to Farmington, New York, in December 1995 to start a new life. Becerra has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, served his time, and quietly begun his probation. In the spring of 1997, however, the Becerra family found themselves in the crosshairs of a neighbourhood campaign to drive them out of town..... All this happened when members of the community found out about Becerra's past."

The beginning of Amitai Etzioni's book summarises what the publication, The Limits of Privacy, is about. Etzioni, Professor of George Washington University, examines situations in which privacy is called for, and in which it can have a negative impact on public health and safety. Etzioni considers, for example, whether you should be told if one of your neighbours is a child molester, or whether the FBI should be able to crack the encrypted messages of terrorists planning to copy the bombing of Oklahoma city.

This controversial book also discusses HIV testing, ID cards and biometric identifiers and medical records in the United States. Etzioni finds that excessive protection of privacy can be harmful to public health. However, when discussing medical records, he finds that better privacy protection is needed to avoid companies profiting from health data.

The book is available from Basic Books, http://www.basicbooks.com, or from bookshops. ISBN: 0-465- 04089-6. Price: US$25.

Privacy & Human Rights 1999: an International Survey of Privacy Laws and Developments

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Privacy International published, in September, a survey of privacy, data protection, surveillance and freedom of information laws and practices in over fifty countries.

Compiled by Simon Davies, Director General of Privacy International and David Banisar, Senior Fellow at EPIC, the book is available from the Amazon Internet bookshop: http://www.amazon.com. Price: US $ 15.00. ISBN: 189304405X. The survey is also available at Privacy International's website at http://www.privacy.org/pi.