The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet

I've become a huge advocate of the role that "social media" can play in creating participatory environments within communities and local governments, however I've rarely taken a step back to look at the privacy implications of the rapidly emerging "Gov 2.0". Technology advocates (such as myself) tend to push a system where people dump their ideas, feelings, and misgivings about their communities into an online environment, but is there ever a moment where we stop and think about how we might be asking people to incrementally give up their privacy? Each piece of information, each opinion, each comment allows potential onlookers to gain more insight into our private lives. In The Future of Reputation author Daniel Solove takes a broad look at privacy on the internet and the consequences of what can happen when information intended toward one audience ends up in the wrong hands. (more after the jump) The internet takes more information than we could ever hope to process and dumps it at our feet. In the midst of this information rich society, it seems that there are a greater number of people that consider their own knowledge on a subject to have reached a level suitable to critique the opinions of others. In fact with many Web 2.0 technologies, the open dissection and criticism of ideas is not only possible but in many ways highly encouraged. We freely post comments on blogs, we share information on Twitter with our own insightful twist, we quip about articles sarcastically on Facebook, and in so many other ways we no longer allow a fear of our own lack of knowledge to hold back our opinion. Solove explores the ways in which these information exchanges, criticisms, and comments function and how they diverge from our methods of communicating outside the internet. The Future of Reputation dives into the many psychologies present on the internet and how they can allow us more freedom to express ourselves while at the same time creating a stronger responsibility to protect the reputations, agency, and autonomies of our fellow humans. Perhaps the most striking example that Solove presents of our new found responsibilities is the YouTube video of the "Star Wars Kid". Many of us passed the video along to friends and enjoyed a good laugh at his expense without ever pausing to think about the psychological impact wrought on the Star Wars Kid by being mocked by millions of people via the internet. Solove guides the reader through a variety of other internet related mishaps and illuminates the darkside of the internet's wide open frontier. It forced me to examine the ways in which we are asking people to expose themselves and the lack of protections that we have in place for the reputations of those who want to be outspoken in our community. What are the repercussions for those individuals that we ask to make their opinions known about a particular topic? Is there anyway to protect them from any acts of retribution carried out by an employe

Solove's book doesn't provide answers, rather it provides situations that help you ask the right questions. As an extra bonus it is extremely well written and an enjoyable read.

Prof. Solove's latest book is a great follow up to The Digital Person (which I also recommend). What I have enjoyed about his writings is his ability to communicate not only to attorneys like myself, but also to a non-lawyer audience. His focus on Internet privacy impacts all of us, and as anyone who follows the news knows, the explosive growth of Cyberspace places a greater burden on the individual and on the legal community to bolster protections and to guard against invasions of privacy. Solove's work explains the terrain of this new digital era in a way that is informative, engrossing, and relevant. I'm looking forward to his future scholarship in this field.

Once I started The Future of Reputation, I could not put it down. The book brings alive how online gossip, social networking sites, and blogs increasingly define who we are and how were are perceived in today's Information Age. The stories it tells are, at once, laugh-out-loud funny and terrifying. We see the lives of others distorted by vengeful ex-lovers and mocked by teachers. Online commentators shine light on bad behavior to shame people. Our reputations are out of our control. What I loved about this book is that it asks us to rethink assumptions about how we define ourselves in an age where search engines tell our story to future employers and old high-school classmates. The book helped me appreciate that online shaming plays a new and perhaps important role in shaping behavior but also has serious costs. It offers thoughtful suggestions for what we can do about these problems without sacrificing so much of what is liberating about our online interactions. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in living a full and informed life in the Internet age.

The author, Daniel J. Solove, was kind enough to send me an advance copy of this book; it scored a KnowProSE.com 10/10: "With actual real world examples gleaned from the internet and put in the limelight, the author seems to leave no stone unturned in a quest for answers. Many people will have heard of some of the examples but few will have looked at them in such a circumspect a manner - and even fewer will have done so with a legal background. Most of my time spent reading this book was spent nodding - I knew about 70% of the stories, but then I've been around a while and have been following the Internet closely- more so than most people on the internet. Still, in most instances the author was able to show me at least one new side to it. This seemed a job which makes the Herculean quest of cleaning the stables seem simple - there is no river to divert here, but there is most certainly a lot of manure. Perhaps the book is the start of the river's diversion. Cyber-bullying, Internet Vigilantism, libel, defamation... mountains are easily grown from molehills in cyberspace. The book is very easy to read, it flows and takes on a life of its own. I could not put it down; even knowing some of the stories did not deter my interest. After much contemplation, I have decided to give the book a KnowProSE.com 10/10 score. Only one other book has been given that status, and both books have received this status because they were interesting books that were well written and important, and do one other thing in particular: they will stand the test of time. Daniel J. Solove is rapidly becoming to privacy what Lawrence Lessig is to copyright and the public domain. If you are reading this review, you need to read this book. Who knows? My next blog entry might be about you. Of all the people who need to read this book, I think bloggers are the ones who need to read it the most: being aware of the consequences of what one writes is important in an age when everyone can write, but not everyone considers the consequences to others. Would that we all understood this better."