Series preface

Abstract

It was a pleasure to be asked to produce this series of essays, following in the footsteps of Eric Barendt's Privacy collection (Ashgate, 2001). Barendt had focused on the philosophical aspects of privacy at a time when academic interest in privacy was beginning to develop more seriously, and his chosen essays had been useful to both me and my students as we studied what 'right to privacy' the individual might have in the networked world. That collection enabled me to see quickly the main themes delineating privacy and also push students towards quickly grasping these themes. Over the past decade or so, the research field has exploded and a much more cross-disciplinarian approach is needed to understand better current trends and responses by the academic community. This series of volumes thus moves into- perhaps- a less philosophical approach about the individual and a more 'ethical' one as society attempts to determine what role privacy should have and how regulation might be enabled whether through law, technology or social norm. The new context is that there is now no technical limitation as to how privacy might be undermined: both the state and commerce have tools and techniques to know more about any individual than they know about themselves, whether through the daily collection of everyday data or through targeting of individuals or populations.