Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE RETROSPECT
- PART TWO EIGHT REVOLUTIONS
- 6 Affluence
- 7 From Isolation to International Hegemonic Power
- 8 The Rise of the Military in American Society
- 9 The Reorganization of American Business
- 10 The Revolution in Racial Relations
- 11 The Revolution in Gender-Based Roles
- 12 Revolution in Sexual Behavior
- 13 The Demise of Privacy
- PART THREE COUNTERREVOLUTION
- PART FOUR EPILOGUE
- Index
13 - The Demise of Privacy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE RETROSPECT
- PART TWO EIGHT REVOLUTIONS
- 6 Affluence
- 7 From Isolation to International Hegemonic Power
- 8 The Rise of the Military in American Society
- 9 The Reorganization of American Business
- 10 The Revolution in Racial Relations
- 11 The Revolution in Gender-Based Roles
- 12 Revolution in Sexual Behavior
- 13 The Demise of Privacy
- PART THREE COUNTERREVOLUTION
- PART FOUR EPILOGUE
- Index
Summary
There is … no doubt that a fundamental right of privacy exists, [and] that it is of constitutional stature. It is not just the right … to be secure in one's person, house, papers and effects, except as permitted by law; it embraces the right to be free from coercion, however subtle, to incriminate oneself; it is different from, but akin to the right to select and freely to practice one's religion and the right to freedom of speech; it is more than the specific right to be secure against the Peeping Tom or the intrusion of electronic espionage devices and wiretapping. All of these are aspects of the right to privacy; but the right of privacy reaches beyond any of its specifics. It is, simply stated, the right to be let alone; to live one's life as one chooses, free from assault, intrusion or invasion except as they can be justified by the clear needs of community living under a government of law.
Abe FortasIf we don't sanction people who violate privacy, we can't expect the law to do much of that work for us. The point is that we should actually care about privacy, and it's not clear that we do.
Robert Post- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- America TransformedSixty Years of Revolutionary Change, 1941–2001, pp. 183 - 198Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006