Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet

Ben Franklin's Web Site is a wonderful book - clear, detailed, engaging, hype-free. So many books have been published on the topic of privacy (especially in recent years). Robert Ellis Smith has written one of those rare pieces that offer a balanced view and provide a truly broad approach to privacy's multifaceted issues. Smith covers historical, philosophical, technological, and legal aspects of the privacy debate, current threats, as well as the relations between privacy and the economic environment. His material is presented in a story-like, chronological order full of interesting anecdotes that grip the attention. Reading this book was a delight.

Robert Ellis Smith's _Ben Franklin's Web Site_ is the best book written on privacy (I've read a lot of them). Smith thoughtfully explores the nuances of Americans' conception of privacy in this book. I use Ben Franklin's Web Site frequently in my work, and think it's just wonderful that it's now in a 2nd printing.

Robert Ellis Smith colors the historical settings for the many pivotal developments, cases and treatise related to privacy. From a description of the Puritan "Tythingmen", who were charged with keeping their eyes on ten families (including the right to inspect the inside of homes), through Madison's early drafts of the First Amendment, forward all the way to the "DoubleClick" controversy, "Ben Franklin's Web Site" covers the myriad of privacy related issues with great elan.

With more than 25 years of experience writing on privacy issues in his newsletter, Privacy Journal, Smith has written a clear, readable history of privacy in America that weaves the various threads of and threats to privacy together in a well-documented fashion. From Americans' insatiable curiosity to the tabloid press, from mistrust of the census to the endless collection of personal information we face today, Smith examines it all thoroughly and cogently. Certainly the best book on privacy I have read. Highly recommended both for those who know something about the area already and those who would like to know more.

Robert Ellis Smith brings the privacy debate back home and to an understandable level in "Ben Franklin's Web Site : Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet." Many privacy books dwell on obscure legal cases that bore the reader to a near state of torpidity. Not so with Mr. Smith's common sense descriptions and explanations of privacy issues throughout the American experience. Aside from giving the reader the ability to understand the importance of privacy in a number of critical facets, this book is just plain fun to read.