Compilation of State
and Federal Privacy Laws
This valuable 106-page reference book has just been updated with a
2008 supplement describing more than 700 state and federal laws on privacy and surveillance. A legal citation is included for each law. The laws are grouped by category, then listed alphabetically by state. Among the categories: bank records, credit bureaus, criminal records, electronic surveillance, employment, government agencies, identity theft, libraries, medical records, Social Security numbers, student records, telephone services, including telephone sales calls, and testing in employment.
The book is "strongly recommended for all public libraries and law school libraries" by
LIBRARY JOURNAL.
Published in 2002 with a 2008 Supplement included (ISBN 0-930072-17-0)(new 13-digit ISBN: 9780930072179), the book sells for
$31 plus $4 for postage. The 18-page 2008 Supplement alone is $21 plus $4.
WANT A FREE COPY? Use the order form below to order a one-year newsletter subscription at $65 and write "FREE SL" on your order before you send it.
2008 Supplement Now Available Separately - $21 plus $4
The new 2008 Supplement describes scores of new laws on "security-breach notifications" (more than 35 of them), "credit freezes," ID theft, Social Security numbers (more than two dozen of them), "pretexting" to get telephone-calling records, a celebrity-protection law in California, and video voyeurism.
Want to download the texts of these books to your computer so that you can store them, search them, cut and paste? (Same price, no shipping charges.) Send us a credit card number and expiration date.
Ben Franklin's Web Site:
Privacy and Curiosity
From Plymouth Rock to the Internet
This engaging book by Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of
Privacy Journal, explores the hidden niches of American history to discover the tug between Americans' yearning for privacy and their insatiable curiosity.
The book describes Puritan monitoring in Colonial New England, then shows how the attitudes of the founders placed the concept of privacy in the Constitution. This panoramic view continues with the coming of tabloid journalism in the Nineteenth Century, and the reaction to it in the form of a new right – the right to privacy. The book includes histories of wiretapping, of credit reporting, of sexual practices, of Social Security numbers and ID cards, of modern principles of privacy protection, and of the coming of the Internet and the new challenges to personal privacy it brings.
“A fascinating book, unsettling, illuminating. I felt privileged to be a footnote in such a work,” said James R. Petersen, author of
The Century of Sex: Playboy’s History of the Sexual Revolution.
Smith’s “numerous books are required reading for anyone concerned about the ongoing threats,” said Simson Garfinkel in
Database Nation.
“Smith’s practical advice and cool exterior belie his passion. Some have called him ‘the Ralph Nader of privacy,’” according to Dana Hawkins in
U.S. News & World Report.
ISBN 0-930072-14-6, new 13-digit ISBN 9780930072148(407 pages), paper, with illustrations, index, bibliographic references, and table of cases. Ideal for classroom use. $17.50 from
Privacy Journal, or from amazon.com.
Directory of Privacy Professionals
New 2007 Edition Now Available!The starting place for anyone getting into privacy issues for the first time is
Privacy Journal’s Directory. It lists more than 500 individuals and organizations with knowledge in this hot topic. It has addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, Web sites, and specialties of public-interest groups, experts, lawyers, corporate and government privacy officers, journalists, academics, consultants, and authors worldwide. It is the only directory covering the growing community of privacy experts – an essential guidebook for journalists, lobbyists, librarians, corporate privacy officers, consumers, lawyers, and others.
Totally updated in 2007. Available in electronic format only. 26 pages with index. $18.50
War Stories
New stories added all the time. Order now! A secretary discovers a hidden camera at work. A five-star general experiences theft of identity. A doctor is traumatized when his own diagnosis of HIV infection is gossiped around town. These and 500 other stories are recounted in this awesome collection of real-life horror stories. Each story includes the identity of the person involved and the source for the story, arranged by category. This collection is intended for journalists, researchers, public advocates, lawyers, and others who need real-life examples to bolster their arguments. Also a fine place to find legal citations and names of attorneys who handle privacy cases. Constantly updated. (ISBN 0-930072-15-9, new 13-digit ISBN, 9780930072155)
$17.50 plus $4 postage fee.
Also available:
War Stories I (1994),
War Stories II (1997),
War Stories III (2001).
For our order form:
You know that a company called ChoicePoint was exposed this year for selling loads of personal information to bogus companies set up to commit frauds on consumers.
But what else do you know about ChoicePoint? Who owns it? What kind of information does it collect? What becomes of the personal information? Who regulates ChoicePoint? What is its past record?
NOW, just in time, Privacy Journal has produced a special report collecting all of its past coverage of the company called ChoicePoint, a company spun off in 1997 from Equifax credit bureau and a company constantly in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission consumer protection division. Privacy Journal's Publisher has been covering the company since 1974, three years after enactment of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and nearly 25 years before it was named ChoicePoint.
Download this special report today. $8.50 by credit card.
Click Here
________________________
A National ID Card:
A License to Live
Is it an Orwellian horror? Or is it an essential requirement of citizenship, especially in a nation threatened by terrorist attacks?
What do you think of a mandatory universal identifier for all Americans - a piece of plastic that we would all carry and have to display upon request? Before you decide for sure, you need the facts. There are lots of assumptions about identity documents, a lot of false assumptions. Privacy Journal set out to gather all the facts on a national ID so that each of us can be fully informed about the consequences to ourselves and to our nation. This special report is the result. It is essential for any citizen concerned about his or her privacy and autonomy. $18.50, from Privacy Journal.
Use the
Order Form below.
Social Security Numbers:
Uses and Abuses
All in one place: a history of Social Security numbers since the 1930s, a translation of what the numbers mean, a guide to when to provide your number - and when you have to - and when not to provide it, plus information about what is done with your number. Published in 2002 (ISBN 0-930072-18-9), 46 pages. $14.95.
Available in hard copy directly from Privacy Journal, or you may download the text to your computer (with a credit card).
Our Vanishing Privacy
A collection of essays first published in 1993 and still current, on a national ID card, Social Security numbers, manipulative marketing, testing abuses, tabloid journalism, and leaks in medical information. 132 pages. $16.95. NOW! When you mention this Web site, your price is $11.50.
The Law of Privacy Explained
Here, in 57 pages, is a concise, understandable explanation of what courts will consider an invasion of privacy. This handy guide to the common law of privacy includes all the important case citations on the tort of invasion of privacy and the constitutional right to privacy. If you want to know whether you have a claim, this is the book you need. If you are an attorney preparing a privacy case, this is the book you need. If you are an individual contemplating hiring a lawyer, this is the book you need.
$14.50 plus $4 postage from Privacy Journal.
Celebrities and Privacy
What are the stories behind celebrities' complaints about invasions of privacy? This 1986 report tells you, with accounts of lawsuits by Clint Eastwood, Johnny Carson, Muhammud Ali, Bela Lugosi, Tom Selleck, and many more. It tells you how certain performers have become famous without compromising their personal privacy. It tells you how the families of deceased celebrities have preserved the rights of publicity to their names, after death. $16.50, plus $4 postage fee.
Privacy: How to Protect What's Left of It
This highly acclaimed 1980 book with specific advice for protecting your own privacy is still relevant and still in demand. It tells you about information gathering in various business sectors and in government, then gives specific tips for protecting yourself, and describes electronic surveillance and how to detect it. "Super," said The New York Times. Some call it the "Unsafe at Any Speed" or the "Silent Spring" of privacy, in other words a landmark book that alerted citizens to a whole new issue.
A few copies are available. Send us an e-mail.
Block Island Trivia
More than 250 questions - lots for children, too - testing your knowledge, or your guessing abilities, about Block Island. Who's the corder of wood? Where is BI-95? What's a Spa boy? Is a lobster left-handed? What is the spooky flash of light over the Atlantic that is viewed from the Island?
Published in 2003.
Makes a great gift.Written by Robert Ellis Smith, long-time resident and conservationist, "the guru of Block Island Trivia," according to
The Block Island Times.
"Bob Smith has Block Island down to the last detail"
--
Providence Journal.
$14.50 from
Privacy Journal.
$17.50 -- Ben Franklin's Web Site, Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet, 407 pages
"A delightful read" - Alan F. Westin "Readable and Sensible" - Wall Street Journal
$8.50 -- ChoicePoint's Ignoble History, a special report, 13 pages (2005)
$31.00 -- Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws, 106-page reference book constantly updated.
Includes current supplement "Strongly recommended for libraries" - Library Journal
$18.50 -- Directory of Privacy Professionals, 500 addresses and phone numbers, updates regularly
"A great reference to have on hand" - Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Canada
$18.50 -- A National ID Card: A License to Live, arguments for and against, 46 pages (2002)
$14.50 -- The Law of Privacy Explained, the basics in 57 pages (1993)
$16.95 -- Our Vanishing Privacy, 132-page book of essays with consumer advice on protecting privacy (1993)
$14.95 -- Social Security Numbers: Uses and Abuses, a special 46-page report issued in 2002
$17.50 -- War Stories, 400 real-life episodes of privacy invasions, updated regularly
$12.00 -- Workrights, 267-page book on rights of employees, still in demand (1984)
$125.00 -- Current subscription to Privacy Journal monthly newsletter (by U.S. mail or e-mail or both)
Discounts are available for non-profits
$165.00 -- Overseas subscription to Privacy Journal
$14.50 -- Index to Privacy Journal newsletter, 1994 - Present
$10.00 Each -- Back issues of Privacy Journal newsletter (specify year in order)
