The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet [Paperback]

Daniel J. Solove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2008

Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there’s a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives—often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false—will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look. This engrossing book, brimming with amazing examples of gossip, slander, and rumor on the Internet, explores the profound implications of the online collision between free speech and privacy.

 

Daniel Solove, an authority on information privacy law, offers a fascinating account of how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cybermobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Long-standing notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance between privacy and free speech, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A timely, vivid, and illuminating book that will change the way you think about privacy, reputation, and speech on the Internet. Daniel Solove tells a series of fascinating and frightening stories about how blogs, social network sites, and other websites are spreading gossip and rumors about people''s private lives. He offers a fresh and thought-provoking analysis of a series of wide-ranging new problems and develops useful suggestions about what we can do about these challenges.”—Paul M. Schwartz, professor of law, University of California Berkeley School of Law
(Paul M. Schwartz 20080201)

“No one has thought more about the effects of the information age on privacy than Daniel Solove.”—Bruce Schneier, author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World

(Bruce Schneier 20080101)

“As the Internet is erasing the distinction between spoken and written gossip, the future of personal reputation is one of our most vexing social challenges. In this illuminating book, filled with memorable cautionary tales, Daniel Solove incisively analyzes the technological and legal challenges and offers moderate, sensible solutions for navigating the shoals of the blogosphere.”—Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Unwanted Gaze and The Naked Crowd 

(Jeffrey Rosen )

"Much of The Future of Reputation catalogs the ways in which privacy has diminished in an age in which technology allows for the diffusion of information and in which punishments for this diffusion are weak or sometimes simply impratical."—Gary Alan Fine, Wilson Quarterly

(Gary Alan Fine Wilson Quarterly )

"[A] brilliant recent book. . . . An honest and troubling account of the ways that we have become our own enemies."—Siva Vaidyanathan, The Chronicle of Higher Education

 

 

(Siva Vaidyanathan The Chronicle of Higher Education )

"Beneath Solove''s legal suggestions rests a keen insight about the extent to which the Internet changes basic questions about privacy."—Mark Williams, MIT''s Technology Review 

(MIT's Technology Review Mark Williams )

"Timely and provocative, The Future of Reputation explores a principal dilemma of our age and provides a workable solution that may appeal to readers on both sides of the debate."—Harvard Law Review

(Harvard Law Review )

"Solove offers practical advice on how societal norms and laws can catch up with technology''s relentless progress. . . . [A] funny and readable call for netizens and legal scholars to accept a more nuanced understanding of privacy."—Bennett Gordon, Utne Reader

(Bennett Gordon Utne Reader ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Daniel J. Solove is associate professor, George Washington University Law School, and an internationally known expert in privacy law. He is frequently interviewed and featured in media broadcasts and articles, and he is the author of The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. He lives in Washington, D.C., and blogs at the popular law blog http://www.concurringopinions.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300144229
• ISBN-13: 978-0300144222
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Law > Procedures & Litigation > Witnesses
  • #27 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Digital Law
  • #34 in Books > Law > Perspectives on Law > Science & Technology

More About the Author

Daniel J. Solove is the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and an internationally-known expert in privacy law.

To find out more about his work and to download many of his writings, go to http://danielsolove.com.

Solove is the author of several books, including
* NOTHING TO HIDE: THE FALSE TRADEOFF BETWEEN PRIVACY AND SECURITY (Yale 2011)
* UNDERSTANDING PRIVACY (Harvard 2008)
* THE FUTURE OF REPUTATION: GOSSIP, RUMOR, AND PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET (Yale 2007) (winner of the 2007 McGannon Award)
* THE DIGITAL PERSON: TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE (NYU 2004)

He is also the author of a textbook, INFORMATION PRIVACY LAW with Aspen Publishing Co. now in its third edition, with co-author Paul Schwartz.

Solove has published more than 40 articles and essays, which have appeared in leading law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Duke Law Journal.

Professor Solove has testified before Congress and has been interviewed and featured in several hundred media broadcasts and articles, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Associated Press, Time, Newsweek, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and NPR.

A graduate of Yale Law School, he clerked for Judge Stanley Sporkin, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He also worked at the law firm Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC.

Professor Solove teaches information privacy law, criminal procedure, criminal law, and law and literature.

He blogs at http://concurringopinions.com, which was selected by the ABA Journal as among the 100 best law blogs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, Important Book About Our Lives and Reputations in the Internet Age, October 30, 2007

By 

D. K. Citron (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Hardcover)

Once I started The Future of Reputation, I could not put it down. The book brings alive how online gossip, social networking sites, and blogs increasingly define who we are and how were are perceived in today's Information Age. The stories it tells are, at once, laugh-out-loud funny and terrifying. We see the lives of others distorted by vengeful ex-lovers and mocked by teachers. Online commentators shine light on bad behavior to shame people. Our reputations are out of our control.

What I loved about this book is that it asks us to rethink assumptions about how we define ourselves in an age where search engines tell our story to future employers and old high-school classmates. The book helped me appreciate that online shaming plays a new and perhaps important role in shaping behavior but also has serious costs. It offers thoughtful suggestions for what we can do about these problems without sacrificing so much of what is liberating about our online interactions. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in living a full and informed life in the Internet age.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read For Bloggers and Other People On Earth., October 17, 2007

By 

Taran Rampersad "Read, Write, Repeat As Neces... (Beloit, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Hardcover)

The author, Daniel J. Solove, was kind enough to send me an advance copy of this book; it scored a KnowProSE.com 10/10:

"With actual real world examples gleaned from the internet and put in the limelight, the author seems to leave no stone unturned in a quest for answers. Many people will have heard of some of the examples but few will have looked at them in such a circumspect a manner - and even fewer will have done so with a legal background.

Most of my time spent reading this book was spent nodding - I knew about 70% of the stories, but then I've been around a while and have been following the Internet closely- more so than most people on the internet. Still, in most instances the author was able to show me at least one new side to it. This seemed a job which makes the Herculean quest of cleaning the stables seem simple - there is no river to divert here, but there is most certainly a lot of manure. Perhaps the book is the start of the river's diversion. Cyber-bullying, Internet Vigilantism, libel, defamation... mountains are easily grown from molehills in cyberspace.

The book is very easy to read, it flows and takes on a life of its own. I could not put it down; even knowing some of the stories did not deter my interest. After much contemplation, I have decided to give the book a KnowProSE.com 10/10 score. Only one other book has been given that status, and both books have received this status because they were interesting books that were well written and important, and do one other thing in particular: they will stand the test of time. Daniel J. Solove is rapidly becoming to privacy what Lawrence Lessig is to copyright and the public domain.

If you are reading this review, you need to read this book. Who knows? My next blog entry might be about you. Of all the people who need to read this book, I think bloggers are the ones who need to read it the most: being aware of the consequences of what one writes is important in an age when everyone can write, but not everyone considers the consequences to others. Would that we all understood this better."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Dangers of Uncritical Thinking, January 8, 2008

By 

Homer Cissell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Hardcover)

This book addresses an incredibly important topic - and is well written to boot. The danger of reputations ruined by carelessness, or by deliberate ill will, should be understood. In fact, this book should be mandatory for human resources personnel and any search committee that uses the Internet to check on a potential employee.

Hopefully Solove will follow up soon with another book. Sites such as Topix, provide a frightening forum for people who are less than ethical. Although Topix provides an alternative format for news, there is no oversight for accuracy or even truth. If Orson Welles had had access to the Internet, perhaps we would all have learned a valuable lesson about questioning and independent thinking. Since Welles is no longer with us, at least we have Daniel Solove to encourage us to question timely issues.