Critical Analysis of Joshua Quittner’s “Invasion of Privacy”

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Critical Analysis of Joshua Quittner’s “Invasion of Privacy”


Senay Boran


ENGL15Z


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By Vince Goff


7 October, 00





Goff 1


Critical Analysis of Joshua Quittner’s “Invasion of Privacy”


Joshua Quittner, in his Aug 5th, 17 Time Magazine article entitled, “Invasion of Privacy”, attempts to get us to “lighten up” on being overly concerned about our privacy. Quittner, a journalist, frequent contributor to Newsday and Wired, and news director for Pathfinder.com, admits to willingly giving up some privacy in the name of security, convenience and improved service; and he believes that we are just as “ambivalent” about it as he is. Quittner is not entirely successful in his attempt to get us to lighten up. In fact, he probably has the opposite of the desired effect in many readers. Quittner increases awareness, and frightens with examples, inadvertently making readers even more paranoid about their privacy.


Mr. Quittner states that at first he, “couldn’t get worked up about privacy” (p 4), citing two instances in which his privacy was violated. They were both taken care of, and no real harm was done in the end. Then, he relates how he did get worked up when his phone was hacked repeatedly. The authorities could not do anything about it. All said, he diffused the anxiety created by this experience with humor. These experiences helped him to realize that we don’t lose our privacy all at once. Rather, we constantly give away little bits of it. Quittner claims he doesn’t mind giving up a little privacy in the name of convenience, and believes we feel the same way.


Quittner’s credibility does not support his thesis. Before Quittner gets too far into convincing us that we ought to give up some privacy in the name of convenience, he concedes to actively tracking users’ activities on his own web site (p40). While his honesty is commendable, how can the reader remain unsuspicious of a person who has a vested interest in information gathering, trying to convince him that giving away his personal information really isn’t all that bad?


Further, Quittner’s arguments and logic are not sufficiently convincing. He states that what people really want is to know more about who knows what about them (p 7). Quittner purports that we don’t really want privacy, citing the popularity of tell-all talk shows as examples. This comparison is fallacious, unfair and unrepresentative to say the least. Surely it represents bad taste in television programming and nothing regarding privacy.


The opposing views and examples cited by Quittner send the reader in the opposite direction. He references a child rapist rifling through medical records to find new victims, bankers cross-referencing medical records to find cancer patients and deny them loans, and large corporations, “testing our DNA for possible imperfections,” in order to deny jobs (p 8). These examples are too striking not to stand out as extreme causes for concern. In addition, they can not be discounted as fallacious or invented, as they are quite real.


Fundamentally, I agree that I want to know more about who has my personal data and what they are doing with it. However, that knowledge is not enough for me. Quittner opposes new laws or agencies to regulate privacy. I think they are both warranted. Like Quittner, I too was not able to get worked up about privacy at first. Now, thanks to Quittner and other articles, I am a bit worked up about it!


A man in his position has to take the stance that giving up some privacy is alright, since his business thrives on people’s data. Most of his arguments end up appearing less than logical and less than convincing. The examples given as opposition tend to hook themselves in the reader’s mind with more grappling power than any of his other arguments or examples. Quittner leaves readers more worried about privacy than when the began, inadvertently reinforcing the opposing view. Readers will scarcely be lightening up about privacy because of this article.





Work Cited


Quittner, Joshua. “Invasion of Privacy.” Time 5 Aug. 178+. Rpt in Writing in the Disciplines, 4th ed. By Mary Lynch Kennedy, William J. Kennedy and Hadley M. Smith. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall, 000. 4-4.


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