The device that has outstripped all other threats to privacy is the computer. Some say the computer is heralding no less than a new phase of civilization. Whether computers will alter our notion of the human condition is in dispute, but what is inarguable is that we will have to change the way we think about keeping certain information private.
Predictor: Alderman, Ellen
Prediction, in context:In their 1995 book “The Right to Privacy,” Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy write: ”One hundred years ago, in arguing for a right to privacy, Louis D. Brandeis and Samuel D. Warren warned, ‘Numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that “what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the housetops.”‘ The device that has outstripped all other threats to privacy is the computer. Some say the computer is heralding no less than a new phase of civilization. Whether computers will alter our notion of the human condition is in dispute, but what is inarguable is that we will have to change the way we think about keeping certain information private.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: The Right to Privacy
Title, headline, chapter name: Privacy and Information
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 323
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney