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Analyzes the controversial area of individual privacy with a focus on such issues as the confidentiality of medical and other personal information, the ethics of drug testing, the rights of the news media to intrude into private lives, and the need to balance law enforcement and privacy concerns.

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School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up-Gottfried discusses the competing interests that exist when the press prints sensitive information; the police search or seize personal property; the government regulates private conduct (sex, abortion, pornography); employers require employees to submit to drug tests; doctors release patients' medical records; and strangers snoop in data banks. One chapter also looks at how young people's privacy rights have been limited by the courts-useful information for teens, but Janet R. Price and Alan H. Levine's The Rights of Students (Univ. of Southern Illinois, 1988) is superior on that topic. Unfortunately, sloppy writing and the tendency to oversimplify sometimes interfere with clarity. Legal phrases (probable cause, good faith) are used without explanation. Discussion of the rule that excludes evidence obtained without a warrant is unnecessarily vague and confusing. Curiously, the author talks more about threats to privacy posed by the ``outing'' of gays and lesbians by other gays than about the constitutionally significant, high-profile issue of whether gays and lesbians have a right to engage in private consensual conduct (barely mentioned). Though Stephen Goode's The Right to Privacy (Watts, 1983; o.p.) is more clearly written, Gottfried's book benefits from currency.-Claudia Morrow, Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 8-12. In this well-written, easy-to-follow discussion of the key privacy debates, Gottfried addresses issues such as law enforcement and surveillance as well as morality issues (such as abortion and birth control), medical privacy (including issues concerning AIDS), and complications in information dissemination brought on by bigger and better data banks. He also looks at media coverage of celebrities, public figures, people accused of crimes and their victims, and, finally, youth and privacy. In each case, he presents both sides of the question and makes it clear that there are no easy solutions to resolving the trade-offs between privacy and society's "need to know." These are issues that interest teens, and the careful selection of case law and examples highlights the problems in a way that will enable a wide range of readers to understand key points. Extensive notes from sources that would be available to high-school students, a solid, approachable recommended reading list, and a helpful summary of the major court decisions contribute to making this a must for public and school libraries and a valuable tool for librarians and educators who are guiding students to ideas for speeches, papers, and/or debates on important current issues. ~--Jeanne Triner