The Private Is Political

The Private Is Political is a compelling firsthand investigation of how social media and big data have amplified the close relationship between privacy and inequality.

Online privacy is under constant attack by social media and big data technologies. But we cannot rely on individual actions to remedy this—it is a matter of social justice. Alice E. Marwick offers a new way of understanding how privacy is jeopardized, particularly for marginalised and disadvantaged communities—including immigrants, the poor, people of colour, LGBTQ+ populations, and victims of online harassment.

Marwick shows that there are few resources or regulations for preventing personal information from spreading on the internet. Through a new theory of “networked privacy,” she reveals how current legal and technological frameworks are woefully inadequate in addressing issues of privacy—often by design.

Drawing from interviews and focus groups encompassing a diverse group of Americans, Marwick shows that even heavy social media users care deeply about privacy and engage in extensive “privacy work” to protect it. However, people are up against the violation machine of the modern internet. Safeguarding privacy must happen at the collective level.