The Transparent Society (1998) is a non-fiction book by the science-fiction author David Brin in which he forecasts social transparency some degree of erosion of privacy, as it is overtaken by low-cost surveillance, communication and database technology, and proposes new institutions and practices that he believes would provide benefits that would more than compensate for lost privacy. The work first appeared as a magazine article by Brin in Wire...
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The Transparent Society (1998) is a non-fiction book by the science-fiction author David Brin in which he forecasts social transparency some degree of erosion of privacy, as it is overtaken by low-cost surveillance, communication and database technology, and proposes new institutions and practices that he believes would provide benefits that would more than compensate for lost privacy. The work first appeared as a magazine article by Brin in Wired in late 1996. In 2008, security expert Bruce Schneier called the transparent society concept a "myth" (a characterization Brin later rebutted), claiming it ignores wide differences in the relative power of those who access information.
Brin argues that true privacy will be lost in the "transparent society"; however, we have the choice between one that offers the illusion of privacy by restricting the power of surveillance to authorities, or one that destroys that illusion by offering everyone access (including the ability to watch the...
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