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While no brief book can hope to provide a comprehensive account of the manifold features of a concept as complex and controversial as privacy, this one introduces readers to the main features of what has become one of the most important rights or interests in contemporary society. In Britain the Leveson Inquiry Report of 2012 is the most comprehensive investigation into the ethics and practice of the media, with a significant section devoted to privacy and media intrusion. Its recommendations relating to media self-regulation continue to engender heated debate in Britain. The extraordinary revelations by the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, of the extensive surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States (US) continue to generate an enormous international debate about the legitimate balance between security and privacy. And the courts—particularly in England and Strasbourg—have reshaped the protection of privacy afforded to individuals under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. New questions are routinely spawned about privacy on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. And, of course, novel forms of electronic and technological surveillance devices pose almost daily challenges to privacy both online and in the ‘real’ world. The book attempts to describe the essential features of both the invasion and the protection of privacy in our digital world. ...Less