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September Project Booklist

Selected books and websites regarding privacy issues to support the discussions of the September Project. See related September Project 2006

Privacy websites

Books on privacy issues

"The right to be left alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the most valued by civilized men," Justice Louis D. Brandeis. From his dissenting opinion in Olmstead v. United States.

"I want to be alone," Gerta Garbo From Grand Hotel

Albrecht, Katherine and Liz McIntyre: Spychips : How major corporations and government plan to track your every move with RFID

355.033 B916f 2004

Albrecht and McIntyre envision a time when chips will be used to identify and track everything. This book is a call to action to protect your privacy and civil liberties. Major corporations are working to install tiny tracking devices on all consumer products. And if we fail to oppose these practices now, say authors and activists Albrecht and McIntyre, our future may look like something from a sci-fi novel.
Alderman, Ellen and Caroline Kennedy: The right to privacy

323.448 A361r

The book examines one of our basic--and most contested--legal and constitutional rights: the right to privacy. Bringing together landmark cases, lesser-known trial decisions, and dozens of anecdotal narratives, the authors make an urgent, complicated issue absorbing and accessible.
Cole, David and James X Dempsey: Terrorism and the constitution: Sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security

343.015 C689t 2002

By comparing recent antiterrorism measures to previous abuses, anticommunist tactics of the 1950s, FBI spying on civil rights activists in the 1960s, and the investigation and harassment of government critics of U.S. foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s, the authors reveal how the Bush administration is repeating the mistakes of the past, expanding the powers of government agencies in ways that are neither necessary nor desirable in a free society.
Coppola, Francis Ford: The Conversation

DVD Drama CONVERSATION

A thought provoking drama that explores the morality of privacy in a story of a surveillance expert who conducts a surveillance job only to believe that he has become an unwitting player in murder scheme.
Ciuraru, Carmela, Ed.: Solitude: Poems

808.819353 S687 2005

How important is privacy in our daily lives? Walt Whiteman, e. e. cummings, William Shakespeare and others try to answer the question.
Darmer, M. Katherine, Ed: Civil liberties vs. national security in a post-9/11 world

342.085 C5821 2004

Darmer addresses the conflict between the protection of civil liberties and the maintenance of national security in the face of terrorist threats. A balanced presentation of the issues, the volume contains selections ranging from the A.C.L.U.'s critique of the U.S.A. Patriot Act to a defense by its chief architect.
Gaffney, Frank J.: War footing: 10 steps America must take to prevail in the war for the free world

355.0335 W253 2006

Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, offers ten steps that individuals and communities can take to ensure their way of life and safety in the war against extremists.
Harper, Jim: Identity crisis: How identification is overused and misunderstood

323.448 H294i 2006

Harper, a lawyer and member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, raises the use identification as a means of security, his point is that governments and businesses are mistakenly joining the two, something that Harper seeks to end. He discusses ID cards, biometrics, the Real ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005 which may require a nationally standardized machine-readable ID of all citizens.
Hunt, David: They just don't get it: How Washington is still compromising your safety--and what you can do about it

363.32 H939t 2005

An Army veteran and Fox News analyst, Hunt is angry. Why? Because even after the terrorist attacks on our country and on Americans around the world, the people charged with protecting us-the politicians and the bureaucrats in military and intelligence-still aren't getting the job done.
Karst, Kenneth L.: "Right to Privacy." Encyclopedia of the American Constitution 2nd ed.

R- 342.73 E56 2000

Bridging the disciplines of history, law, and politics with language that is accessible Karst assesses both classic and current theories of the Constitution.
Labunski, Richard: James Madison and the struggle for the Bill of Rights

342.085 L127j 2006

A dramatic account of how an unlikely hero - the shy, soft-spoken, and scholarly James Madison - almost single-handedly brought the Bill of Rights to life against daunting odds, shaping the United States.
Meese, Edwin, Ed.: The Heritage guide to the Constitution

342.73029 H548 2005

A series of articles that bring together over one hundred conservative legal experts to provide a line-by-line examination of the Constitution and its contemporary meaning. The book stresses the original intent of the Framers as the authoritative standard of constitutional interpretation.
Parenti, Christian: The soft cage: surveillance in America from slavery to the war on terror.

303.33 P228s 2003

Concerns about the tension between national security and privacy rights are as old as the nation itself. This book explores the historical and sociological roots of government surveillance in the name of national interests, from slave owners' attempts to control slaves to modern police efforts to control crime.
Posner, Richard A.: Catastrophe: Risk and response

363.34 P855c 2004

While writing a treatise on the current lack of planning for dealing with large-scale disasters, federal appeals court judge Posner criticizes the "blinkered perspective" of civil libertarians hung up on constitutional law, he finds certain curtailments of freedom an acceptable trade-off for preventing terrorist attacks and offers a lengthy justification of torture as one such option.
Smith, Janna Malamud: Private matters: In defense of the personal life

155.92 S651p

Smith, daughter of novelist Bernard Malamud, offers a wide-ranging analysis of privacy's role--positive and, sometimes, negative--in individuals' construction and expansion of their humanness.
Sunstein, Cass R.: Radicals in Robes: Why extreme Right-wing courts are wrong for America

347.7312 S958r 2005

Examines four interpertations to the constitution: perfectionism, majoritarianism, minimalism and fundamentalism. Sunstein favors minimalism and is fearful of the trend he sees toward fundamentalism. He believes that the judicial activism of the Right seeks to restore the "real" Constitution, in exile since the New Deal.
Zuckerman, Mortimer B: U.S. News & World Report.

"Let's use all of the tools." 29 Nov 2006. Many U.S. citizens are not supportive of telephone screening by the government because they feel it interferes with their constitutional right to privacy. However, the author suggests that using telephone surveillance as a weapon in the fight against terrorism has, in the past, helped convict numerous felons and solve countless crimes.

Privacy websites

Electronic Privacy Information Center: http://www.epic.org

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C., which focuses public attention on emerging civil liberties and privacy issues by providing links, news, and documentation of litigation regarding the Freedom of Information Act, privacy, and First Amendment. Resources also include alerts, reports and EPIC's Bill-Track, which follows legislation.
Privacy.Org: http://www.privacy.org

Privacy.Org provides daily news, information, and initiatives on privacy. It is a joint project of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Privacy International, a London based human rights group which "serves as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations."
U.S. Dept of Justice: Preserving Life and Liberty: http://www.lifeandliberty.gov

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez presents updates on the USA Patriot Act, explanations in support, text of selected testimony, arguments "dispelling the myths," statements from members of Congress, the full text of the Act, and how the Act has been used to fight terror.
Privacy Office - U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0338.xml

The Privacy Office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the "first statutorily required Privacy Office at any federal agency whose mission is to minimize the impact on the individual's privacy, particularly the individual's personal information and dignity, while achieving the mission of the Department of Homeland Security."
Behind the Homefront: http://www.rcfp.org/behindthehomefront/

Information on homeland security news and military operations which affect news gathering, information access and the public's right to know. Includes a searchable archive.
Privacy Foundation: http://www.privacyfoundation.org

Affiliated with the Privacy Center at the University of Denver. They organize links to articles about privacy issues by subject which are maintained on other organization's website s. The subjects are: international; homeland security; financial, workplace & student privacy; medical patient security; and identity theft.
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://www.privacyrights.org

A nonprofit consumer organization which provides information and advocacy regarding technology and personal privacy. It includes several practical fact sheets in both English and Spanish on wireless communication, telemarketing, employee monitoring, credit reporting, and other privacy concerns. They provide an extensive list of links to "privacy organizations & issues, privacy media, privacy blogs, privacy resources in academia, privacy-enhancing services & tools, consumer sites, and legal and legislative resources."
Cato Institute: http://www.cato.org/tech/privacy.html

A conservative/libertarian think tank, presents the Tech, Telecom and Internet Privacy Issues website which "advances the Institute's vision of free minds and free markets within the fields of telecommunications and technology."
American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org/privacy

Provides feature articles and reports on issues, updates on litigation, and information about anonymity on the Web; consumer, internet, medical & workplace privacy; internet free speech; genetics; students; surveillance & wiretapping. They also have an advocacy page regarding the USA Patriot Act
American Library Assoc. on USA Patriot Act: http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=ifissues&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=76879

American Library Association (ALA) information regarding the USA Patriot Act and Intellectual Freedom. Includes text of ALA resolutions opposing the USA Patriot Act, updates on legislation, and links to non-ALA sites.
PrivacyExchange.org: http://www.privacyexchange.org

PrivacyExchange.org is "a global information resource on consumers, commerce, and data protection worldwide. It includes a legal library for privacy laws around the world.
Privacy Coalition: http://www.privacycoalition.org

The Privacy Coalition is a "privacy, civil liberties, consumer, and family-based organization which advocates strong privacy protections." They present information on privacy legislation and issues.
Privacy Rights Now: http://www.privacyrightsnow.com

Ralph Nader's site highlights "the efforts of the key non-profit organizations that care about the integrity of your private life." It provides action alerts and a list of key liberal privacy and consumer groups.
Google Privacy Directory: http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Issues/Human_Rights_and_Liberties/Privacy

Google's Privacy Directory provides an extensive list of privacy sites and organizes them by the categories of advocacy groups, computer and internet privacy, cryptography & US homeland security.
MegaLaw.com: http://www.megalaw.com/top/terrorism.php

"Information for lawyers" includes an extensive list of nongovernmental, U.S. Federal government & international website s on terrorism and national security law, plus court decisions, laws and statutes.