Just Finished Reading: Privacy – A Very Short Introduction by Raymond Wacks

I am, despite the irony of the statement, a private person. So it’s understandable that the concept of privacy interests me a great deal. Unfortunately I should have read the potted biography of the author a little more closely and realised that this book really wasn’t what I was looking for on the subject. Professor Wacks is an international expert in the law of privacy – which is something I only find tangentially interesting. Fortunately for me, not only is the author a gifted communicator he also peppers the book with the historical origins of modern privacy (which is an interesting subject in its own right) as well as the implications of modern technology – with Facebook and surveillance camera’s featuring prominently in the discussion – and speculates on the future of privacy in a world easily conceived of and which is becoming all too real, in other words a world without a real private sphere.

Whilst this book wasn’t a huge struggle to read – for all of the reasons outlined above – I can’t really say that I enjoyed it very much. I guess that if I was of a more legal frame of mind that this would have provided me with a comparatively light and thought provoking read. As I’m more of a Geek with a passion for history I’m afraid that my interest was focused more on his introductory chapters and his technological sidetracks. Definitely one for the lawyers amongst us I think!