The Costs of Privacy Surveillance (Social Institutions and Social Change) Book

The Costs of Privacy challenges the prevailing belief that Americans enjoy less privacy today than in the past. Weaving together historical and contemporary data, the author argues that over the past two centuries changes in familial living arrangements, particularly the growing number of "emancipated" adults living outside of families, have actually enabled Americans to enjoy more privacy than ever before. Because it isolates people, however, that greater privacy creates a greater number of strangers. How, then, in an anonymous society of strangers, is trust possible? What enables both individuals and institutional actors to trust others they have never met and do not know? Nock suggests an answer: that surveillance establishes and maintains reputations, allowing us to trust strangers. Nock 1 defines, such surveillance functionally, as overt and conspicuous forms of credentials (e.g., credit cards, educational degrees, drivers' licenses), and/or ordeals (e.g., lie detector tests, drug tests, integrity tests). He shows that the increasing use of such credentials and ordeals, over time, is correlated with the number of strangers in our society. Surveillance and anonymity are costs of greater personal privacy; the corresponding changes in laws and customs have important consequences for our society. The concluding chapter focuses on new methods of surveillance that can record genetic and biochemical information about people. Unlike traditional bases of reputation, genetic information makes it possible to predict future physical illnesses, mental health problems, and various types of behavior. These predictive forms of surveillance may seem attractive because they make it possible to enter into risky relationships with many people and trust them, without ever getting to know them. That, argues Nock, may be the greatest cost of privacy.Read More