Buschman, J. (2016). The structural irrelevance of privacy: A provocation. Library Quarterly, 86, 419-433.

Citation

Buschman, J. (2016). The structural irrelevance of privacy: A provocation. Library Quarterly, 86, 419-433.

Annotation

This paper by John Buschman looks at the traditional ideas about privacy, how they have changed over the years, and how we move forward. The majority of the paper goes over the history of privacy policies and how it has changed over the decades. The main crux of Buschman's article is that "privacy-theory-as-shaped-by-information-ethics has become much more depoliticized and preoccupied with philosophical concerns" (p. 421). In light of this shift towards more philosophical reasoning, information ethics needs to catch up and do a better job regulating privacy of consumers. Buschman ends with suggestions about how library and information service works should "pursue a form of collective privacy protections" (p. 428) and that privacy is a global issue that needs to be addressed as a whole, not just by individuals.

Buschman's major issue is the writing itself. The article is full of jargon, often feeling like a slog to get through and while Buschman has a large reference base, there seems to be too many references/citations in the article. I got the feeling for the majority of the article that Buschman did not actually have anything original or useful to say until the conclusion because of the over-referencing of other works. The assumed level of knowledge for the reader is also extremely high, meaning this is not for the everyday user but rather professionals in the area of privacy law and/or those in the library and information science field. It takes multiple readings to get the all the points of this article which I found tedious and annoying. There is also a feeling of paranoia that I picked up on throughout the work, with the notion that "Big Brother is always watching" appearing to be an underlying theme (Orwell, 1949). The bright spot of this paper comes during the conclusion. Buschman finally manages to articulate his thoughts clearly and the paper becomes more readable. He also offers a variety of websites to help provide more information for people interested in privacy protections and how librarians can help boost these ideas into a professional reality. However, overall I would say that this particular paper is not particularly significant to the field of library and information science simply because most, if not all, of the information in it can be found throughout multiple other sources, many of which are cited gratuitously in this paper.

References

Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. United Kingdom: Secker & Warburg

Areas / Topics / Keywords

Privacy, Information Ethics, Global Issues