Chapter 1

I felt that chapter one was more of a definition and history lesson in privacy. The two aspects of this chapter I found most interesting were the comparison of the privacy movement to the environmental movement and how Garfinkel defines privacy. First how Garfinkel truly broadly defines privacy to mean just not the "kooks" off in the woods but as being about "self-possession, autonomy, and integrity" and is ultimately "the power of the individual", He then goes into a couple of examples of how privacy is stopping good people who maybe screw up once to not do things because of being in the public eye. I feel that this sense of always being watched really affects people, although today it is hidden as people receiving value added services, such as credit card purchasing and online purchasing. People maybe affected in a positive way such as with more precise products built to meet their needs or in a negative way with stolen identity.

Second, the comparison of environmental to privacy movement. Pretty much what I gather he is getting at here is that this is as big if not a bigger issue than the environmental issue of the 1970's. However, it will not see as much change until public opinion changes about it. I feel that the only thing that would provide for ample privacy protection would be a disaster that affected the credit reporting bureau where thousands of people's data was taken and people suffered an actual economic loss; not just a credit reporting loss. Maybe then we would see legistlation that makes credit bureaus responsible for losses of their customers due to indentity theft from the bureaus not confirming transactions.