Ann Cavoukian and Don Tapscott's thin book on privacy issues in the computer age is an excellent survey of the threats to privacy today. The premise of Who Knows is a simple one: privacy is under assault by advances in technology. After a brief introduction on the nature of privacy, Cavoukian and Tapscott survey privacy laws in the US, Canada, and Europe. The authors show how the growth of computers has created an ever pervasive web of surveillance that would have made George Orwell blush. With convincing "horror stories," Cavoukian and Tapscott reveal how medical records and financial records are no longer private. They discuss the dangers posed by genetic testing. Finally, they show how most new technologies will only exacerbate these trends.
For the reader who is already concerned about privacy issues, Who Knows is an excellent and entertaining reference. Unfortunately, there isn't enough of the authors within this book's pages. As the assistant commissioner for Ontario's Information and Privacy Commission, Cavoukian has seen up close the fight within modern society to put limits on personal privacy. Yet when the authors meet today's tough privacy questions head-on, they equivocate, saying that privacy is a delicate balance between competing interests, rather than a fundamental human right.
Take the case of business, which according to Cavoukian and Tapscott should adopt voluntary pro-privacy codes to prevent governments from mandating harsher regulations. Although they make a convincing case that ethical businesses can do well by themselves and by their customers, they fail to discuss those businesses that use exploitative techniques to clean up at the customer's expense.
Who Knows does a stunning job of charting the developments in anti privacy technology and pro-privacy legislation over the past 30 years, but Cavoukian and Tapscott pull their punches, declining to name the names of the privacy "activists" whose actions have set back the cause. It's a good book, as far as it goes. Who knows what it could have been if the authors had gone further.
Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World, by Ann Cavoukian and Don Tapscott: US$24.95. McGraw Hill: (800) 262 4729, +1 (212) 512 2000.
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