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Sarah E. Igo
The Price of Privacy
Who gets to keep a secret in a hyperconnected world?
The Atlantic, 2022
What's inside?
America’s views on privacy have evolved with new technologies.
Recommendation
The boundary between public and private life has changed in the past century. American law has struggled to balance each citizen’s personal right to privacy and the public’s right to know. As Sarah E. Igo reports in The Atlantic, new technologies enable the media, as well as social media and corporations, to invade the private sphere and feed the public’s appetite for salacious material. Public debate is percolating around the subject of privacy in a surveillance society. While it seems that only those with money can somewhat shield themselves, Igo argues persuasively that privacy should not become a right reserved for the rich and powerful, but a “collective social good” that protects everyone.
Summary
About the Author
Sarah E. Igo, the Andrew Jackson Chair in American History at Vanderbilt University, also wrote The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America. The Atlantic won the Magazine of the Year General Excellence award from the American Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and 2023.
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