Fight for Privacy

There's deep, qualitative insight in this book about how intimate privacy has been increasingly compromised by the proliferation of digital tools throughout our lives. This is complemented by the sections Citron devotes to case law and different legal regimes around protecting privacy and intimate privacy specifically.

One of the knocks for me on this book is that the title is misleading - I think if it was called "the fight for intimate privacy" it would be much more clear what was going to be tackled here. As it stands, other privacy topics are barely covered. I would've also liked a lot more on the legal analysis of this topic, given the author's expertise as one of the preeminent legal scholars on the topic. The anecdotes and stories are useful up to a point, but after hearing a number of similar terrible stories of privacy violations I felt like many issues were just being rehashed without additional insight into the core privacy issues involved.

From this perspective, I would recommend this book to those looking to understand more around the landscape of intimate privacy harms and possible legal remedies. For those looking for a broader coverage of privacy, you'll probably leave disappointed.

This book starts off really strong with a very broad enumeration of the personal and social impact privacy violations can have as well as the many different ways our privacy is being systematically and ruthlessly violated. The beginning third of the book was wonderful. However, it then spends a lot of time tip-toeing around definitions and legal minutiae before getting to the crux of her argument, saying privacy needs to be treated as a basic human right. She does a great job again talking about all the various ways we need to be addressing privacy from a societal perspective, law, law enforcement, culture, education.

The biggest qualm I have with this book is that it doesn't seem to have an audience in mind. Her tone is addressing the average woman with no connection to privacy, and that would be fine if she didn't get so hung up on legal details whether it be precedent or how to craft the perfect law going forward.

For those privacy focused, I'd highly recommending reading at least the first few chapters. The single greatest highlight of this book was in it's ability to show why privacy is important for everyone, not just those "with something to hide". I really appreciated the focus on how devastating certain privacy violations can impact someone's life and that it cannot possibly be each person's responsibility to have perfect digital hygiene.