Privacy at the Margins

 Limited legal protections for privacy leave minority communities vulnerable to concrete injuries and violence when their information is exposed. In Privacy at the Margins, Scott Skinner-Thompson highlights why privacy is of acute importance for marginalized groups. He explains how privacy can serve as a form of expressive resistance to government and corporate surveillance regimes - furthering equality goals - and demonstrates why efforts undertaken by vulnerable groups (queer folks, women, and racial and religious minorities) to protect their privacy should be entitled to constitutional protection under the First Amendment and related equality provisions. By examining the ways even limited privacy can enrich and enhance our lives at the margins in material ways, this work shows how privacy can be transformed from a liberal affectation to a legal tool of liberation from oppression.

Review: 'Privacy at the Margins is a tour de force. It reinvigorates our understandings of why privacy ought to be protected by identifying the First Amendment values that privacy rights implicate. It convincingly argues that privacy ought to be protected not simply because invasions of privacy injure dignity, but also because they frequently function to subordinate marginalized individuals and communities. Scott Skinner-Thompson has written a book that will be looked to for generations to come - a major feat in the field of privacy.' Khiara M. Bridges, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law and author of The Poverty of Privacy Rights
'This is an enormously important book about a crucial aspect of privacy law that has been overlooked: the way in which it affects historically discriminated against individuals. Professor Skinner-Thompson focuses on privacy for our public actions and for information about us and examines how this affects marginalized communities. His treatment of this topic is stunning in its originality, its clarity, and its insightful proposals for change.' Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
'Privacy at the Margins makes a significant contribution in helping us understand the importance of privacy for equality for the most vulnerable among us. It pushes legal conceptions of privacy in new ways, reframing privacy as expressive resistance to the powerful and as indispensable to equality of opportunity. It is thought-provoking, creative, and an important must read.' Danielle Keats Citron, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law and Vice President, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
'In a world in which privacy has been privatized, the marginalized and precarious in society need it more than ever. Why then has privacy received such limited protection by courts and lawmakers? In his signature style, Scott Skinner-Thompson brilliantly wrestles with this critical question and proposes insightful ways to redress the problem, both as a legal and discursive matter. Privacy at the Margins offers a roadmap to transform privacy from an individualistic right into an anti-oppression legal tool. This is a crucial text for our new digital age and for anyone interested in surveillance, anti-subordination, justice, and privacy today.' Bernard E. Harcourt, author of Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age and Critique and Praxis, and Isidore and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science, Columbia University