Privacy and Power

Computer Databases and Metaphors for Information Privacy

Bibliographic Data

ID5827769
AuthorsDaniel J Solove (0000-0001-6598-482X, Yale University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume53
Issue6
Pages1393-1393
Publication date2001-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStanford Law Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-9765 • E-ISSN: 1939-8581
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1229546
OpenAlexW3123535767
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited1

Journalists, politicians, jurists, and legal academics often describe the privacy problem created by the collection and use of personal information through computer databases and the Internet with the metaphor of Big Brotherthe totalitarian government portrayed in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.Professor Solove argues that this is the wrong metaphor.The Big Brother metaphor as well as much of the law that protects privacy emerges from a longstanding paradigm for conceptualizing privacy problems.Under this paradigm, privacy is invaded by uncovering one's hidden world, by surveillance, and by the disclosure of concealed information.The harm caused by such invasions consists of inhibition, self-censorship, embarrassment, and damage to one's reputation.Privacy law has developed with this paradigm in mind, and consequently, it has failed to grapple effectively with the database problem.Professor Solove argues that the Big Brother metaphor merely reinforces this paradigm and that the problem is better captured by Franz Kafka's The Trial.Understood with the Kafka metaphor, the problem is the powerlessness, vulnerability, and dehumanization created by the assembly of dossiers of personal information where individuals lack any meaningful form of participation in the collection and use of their information.Professor Solove illustrates that conceptualizing the problem with the Kafka metaphor has profound implications both for the law of information privacy and for choosing legal approaches to solve the problem

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