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ABOUT THE BOOK

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, cyber mobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom.  Longstanding notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance among privacy, free speech, and anonymity, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free.

“An entire generation is growing up in a very different world, one where people will accumulate detailed records beginning with childhood that will stay with them for life wherever they go. . . . The Internet is bringing back the scarlet letter in digital form—an indelible record of people’s past misdeeds.” -- from The Future of Reputation

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel J. Solove is an associate professor of law at the George Washington University Law School. 

He is the author of THE DIGITAL PERSON: TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE (NYU Press 2004) and INFORMATION PRIVACY LAW (Aspen Publishing, 2d ed. 2006).    

An internationally known expert in privacy law, Solove has been interviewed and quoted by the media in over 100 articles and broadcasts, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and NPR. 

He has published over 25 articles, which have appeared in many of the leading law reviews, including the Stanford Law Review, Yale Law Journal, California Law Review, U. Pennsylvania Law Review, Michigan Law Review, among others. 

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PRAISE FOR THE FUTURE OF REPUTATION

"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."

-- Professor Paul M. Schwartz, Berkeley Law School

 

"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

 

""No one has thought more about the effects of the information age on privacy than Daniel Solove."

-- Bruce Schneier, author of Secrets & Lies, and Beyond Fear