A penetrating and insightful study of privacy and security in telecommunications for a post-9/11, post-Patriot Act world. Telecommunication has never been perfectly secure. The Cold War culture of recording devices in telephone receivers and bugged embassy offices has been succeeded by a post-9/11 world of NSA wiretaps and demands for data retention. Although the 1990s battle for individual and commercial freedom to use cryptography was won, growth in the use of cryptography has been slow. Meanwhile, regulations requiring that the computer and communication industries build spying into their systems for government convenience have increased rapidly. The application of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act has expanded beyond the intent of Congress to apply to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other modern data services; attempts are being made to require ISPs to retain their data for years in case the government wants it; and data mining techniques developed for commercial marketing applications are being applied to widespread surveillance of the population. In Privacy on the Line, Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau strip away the hype surrounding the policy debate over privacy to examine the national security, law enforcement, commercial, and civil liberties issues. They discuss the social function of privacy, how it underlies a democratic society, and what happens when it is lost. This updated and expanded edition revises their original—and prescient—discussions of both policy and technology in light of recent controversies over NSA spying and other government threats to communications privacy.

Telecommunication has never been perfectly secure, as a Cold War culture of wiretaps and international spying taught us. Yet many of us still take our privacy for granted, even as we become more reliant than ever on telephones, computer networks, and electronic transactions of all kinds. Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau argue that if we are to retain the privacy that characterized face-to-face relationships in the past, we must build the means of protecting that privacy into our communication systems. Diffie and Landau strip away the hype surrounding the policy debate to examine the national security, law enforcement, commercial, and civil liberties issues. They discuss the social function of privacy, how it underlies a democratic society, and what happens when it is lost.

The book is organized in Folklore Units. Each Folklore Unit has Context and may have one or more Metacontexts with citations of works of great philosophers or writers; hence, the title of the book is Metafolklore. The book covers the life of immigrants from the USSR in the U.S., remembers life in Russia, and gradually concentrates on the modus operandi of the KGB, FBI, CIA, NYPD, NSA, ECHELON, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Al, and ISI. It covers frontiers of legal theory of surveillance. What distinguishes this book is the intensely personal account of the events and issues.

Writing in their famous Harvard Law Review article of 1890, Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren asserted what many have considered one of the most cherished American values: the right to be let alone. Yet in this post-9/11 world, personal privacy is more threatened than ever. This book provides students and general readers a comprehensive overview of privacy in contemporary America. Included are some 225 alphabetically arranged entries written by more than 100 expert contributors. Entries cover such topics as the USA PATRIOT act, abortion rights, wiretapping, telemarketing, identity theft, DNA databases, Internet and email privacy, and numerous other concerns. Entries cite works for further reading, and the Encyclopedia closes with a bibliography of books, websites, organizations, and films. New threats to privacy have arisen in the face of competing social, political, and economic demands, rapid technological change, and an intrusive and voyeuristic mass media. Citizens are barraged on a daily basis with stories of corporate data mining, government surveillance programs, identity theft, and computer hacking of personal information. As a result, citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about their personal privacy as well as their privacy rights. This encyclopedia, the first of its kind, comprehensively overviews various aspects of privacy throughout U.S. history, including significant legal cases, events, laws, organizations, individuals, technology, and terms. With some 225 alphabetically arranged entries written by more than 100 leading scholars and experts in the field, this inclusive and authoritative work will appeal to those interested in both historical and contemporary notions of privacy in the United States. Readers will learn of the significance of technology in today's society, its helpful and harmful effects on citizens' privacy, and what to expect in the future. Entries cite print and electronic resources, and the Encyclopedia closes with a listing of books, organizations, websites, films, and other sources of information.