One of the most relevant shortcomings associated with the wide use of some technologies is the dubious protection of privacy. In Klitou’s book, the reader will find an interesting, well-written study on the privacy problems raised by the use of technology.

Specifically, the author elaborates on privacy-invading technologies and concentrates on four case studies, namely body scanners, public space closed-circuit television (CCTV) microphones, public space CCTV loudspeakers, and human-implantable microchips. The core of the book discusses how quickly technology evolves and threatens privacy, and how regulations and legal frameworks cannot move at the same pace, which opens the door for privacy rights violation.

The author concentrates on the legal view of the US and the UK and states that current regulations (for example, the US Privacy Act and the European Data Protection Directive) focus on the user of privacy-invading technologies (PITs) instead of paying attention to manufacturers and developers, and he advocates for the model of privacy by design, which is a completely opposite approach that concentrates on manufacturers and developers instead of end users.

The book has an introductory chapter plus nine chapters organized in four parts. The structure, goals, and a brief overview of each chapter are given in chapter 1. Next, Part 1 (“Principles of Privacy”) comprises chapters 2 and 3, which are devoted to stating some definitions about privacy, liberty, and security and to analyzing the adequacy of the current privacy legal framework. Part 2 (“Technological Threats to Privacy”) comprises chapters 4 to 8 and elaborates on PITs and describes and analyzes four case studies. Chapter 5 deals with body scanners; chapter 6 analyzes public space CCTV microphones and loudspeakers; chapter 7 focuses on human-implantable microchips, for example radio-frequency identification (RFID) and global positioning systems (GPS); and chapter 8 summarizes the discussions of Part 2. Part 3 (“New Approach to Protecting Privacy”) comprises a single chapter (that is, chapter 9), which is completely devoted to describing the concept of privacy by design and its benefits. The book ends with Part 4 (“Research Results”) that summarizes the main conclusions of the book in chapter 10.

I was expecting much technical/engineering content about data privacy like [1] and [2], which is not actually present in the book. It was published within the “Information Technology and Law” series, which is not technical but mostly legal. The book could be interesting to a wide audience, from lawyers and regulators to developers and engineers.