The Naked Society is a 1964 book on
privacy
Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively.
The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...
by
Vance Packard. The book argues that changes in technology are encroaching on privacy and could eventually create a society with radically different privacy standards.
Packard criticized advertisers' unfettered use of private information to create marketing schemes. He compared a recent
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Universit ...
initiative by then-president
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
, the
National Data Bank
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The term was first coined during a 1964 commencement address by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the University ...
, to the use of information by advertisers and argued for increased
data privacy
Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data pr ...
measures to ensure that information did not find its way into the wrong hands. The essay led
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
to create the
Special Subcommittee on the Invasion of Privacy and inspired privacy advocates such
Neil Gallagher and
Sam Ervin
Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896April 23, 1985) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often ...
to fight Johnson's flagrant disregard for consumer privacy. Ervin criticized Johnson's invasive domestic agenda and saw the unfiltered database of consumers' information as a sign of presidential abuse of power. Ervin warned that “the computer never forgets”.
Summary
It was the first book to raise the question of how technological change is making observation of individuals lives, tastes, opinions and actions easier to observe and monitor. It argues that privacy is worth defending.
The technologies of concern at the time of publication were such things as hidden microphones, concealed cameras, and the
polygraph lie detector.
One reviewer summarized the book by saying that it "is concerned with all the peeping tomfoolery which is going on today and the various ways in which we are exposed and thereby victimized."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naked Society
1964 non-fiction books
Works about privacy
Privacy activists
Activism
Privacy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson