Could any book dealing with heavy issues such as privacy be more interesting - sometimes even entertaining - than this? To read The Right to Privacy by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy has been an absolute joy ride throughout - not the issues therein but the "stories" displayed to illustrate a wide range of privacy issues. To describe the reading experience of this book as compelling, gripping, spellbinding, or captivating might sound weird, but that was I have felt while reading this book. I am certain to say that this book is much more interesting and attention-grabbing than many thrillers or crime novels.
The authors have done a marvelous job in integrating seamlessly a variety of court cases with their implications and impacts on privacy issues. They have told and re-told the wealth of different stories in a way that any reader would be so into them instantly. Their way of story-telling are not only very human and sympathetic - to both victims and the accused - but also very well-balanced in explaining why things are panning out that way.
Their analyses and comments on a range of privacy issues also appear very thoughtful, well-rounded, superbly balanced, and therefore insightful that could endure a test of significant periods of time.
Lots of things - legislation, regulations, torts, policies, procedures, perceptions, awareness, etc. - have been changed since this book was published more than 10 years ago. However, the implications, lessons learned, and commonalities from the cases dealt with in this book seem still very relevant and meaningful. Or maybe even more than before.
To quote from their conclusion: "This combination of education and altered expectations may hold the key to privacy protection in the future. There is a growing consensus that if the jumble of state and federal statutes, consumer pressure, and self-help is to be unified into meaningful privacy protection in the digital age, then we will have to do more than pass a law. (...) With so much information available at a key stroke, it is now inescapable that there will be times when what is whispered in the closet will indeed be shouted from the housetops."
Well, that "times" has already arrived. ...
