Life after Privacy

Firmin DeBrabander is Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art. He has written commentary pieces for a number of national publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, the Atlantic, LA Times, Salon, Aeon, Chicago Tribune, and The New Republic. Professor DeBrabander is the author of Do Guns Make us Free? (2015), a philosophical and political critique of the guns rights movement.

• Preface; 1. Confessional Culture; 2. Defenses of Privacy; 3. Big Plans for Big Data; 4. The Surveillance Economy; 5. Privacy Past and Present; 6. The Borderless, Vanishing Self; 7. Autonomy and Political Freedom; 8. Powerful Publics; Conclusion.

'… Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society is an eloquent, compelling call for us to rethink our commitment to privacy by understanding its history and uses. Rather than attempting to double down on a possibly doomed principle, DeBrabander argues that what is really needed is more democracy, and specifically a newly energized commitment to a public sphere that requires open, transparent, and meaningful debate. An indispensable book for our times that does what great political philosophy needs to do - make us question what we mean by our most basic concepts.' William Egginton, author of The Splintering of the American Mind