Review Essay— Helen Nissenbaum'sPrivacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life(2010)

Abstract

Social media is a dominating force in modern social life as internet technology has taken hold of our cyber-driven society. Many scholars, as will be explored below, have articulated fears and enthusiasm about what can be interpreted as a reconfiguration of privacy in a culture mediated by technology. Scholarship ranges from those opposing new conception of privacy in favour of protecting rights in traditional private/public distinctions with privacy as a privilege worthy of proprietary protection to those reveling in opening floodgates for information to re-invent or even destroy any semblance of traditional distinctions of privacy. These poles become even more accentuated in light of fast-proliferating technology illustrated by popular social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquareetc.In the North-American debate, the privacy concerns connected with these developments are compounded further by the U. S. Supreme Court's recent decision,Nelson v. NASA, which involves the constitutional right of government to ask for employee's personal information in the context of national security and surveillance.