Privacy and Freedom

Privacy and Freedom

<div><p>"He was the most important scholar of privacy since Louis Brandeis."—Jeffrey Rosen</p><p>In defining privacy as “the claim of individuals…to determine for themselves when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated,” Alan Westin’s 1967 classic <I>Privacy and Freedom</I> laid the philosophical groundwork for the current debates about technology and personal freedom, and is considered a foundational text in the field of privacy law.<BR><BR>By arguing that citizens retained control over how their personal data was used, Westin redefined privacy as an individual freedom, taking Justice Louis Brandeis’ 19th century definition of privacy as a legal right and expanding it for use in modern times. Westin’s ideas transformed the meaning of privacy, leading to a spate of privacy laws in the 1970s, as well as prefiguring the arguments over privacy that have come to dominate the internet era.<BR><BR>This all new edition of <I>Privacy and Freedom</I> features an introduction by Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School.<BR></div>