The Future of Reputation, by Daniel J. Solove

I was fortunate enough to be offered an advanced copy of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet from Daniel Solove, which I happily accepted though I would be in Suriname - it worked out perfectly; I found it in my mailbox upon my early return. Tearing open the package, I fully intended to review the book and post it on Friday.

This did not happen. The second I opened the covers, I was stuck in a focused look at the problems of reputation on the internet - something I do have first hand experience with. The book starts with the classic issue of the 'dog poop girl' - a young woman in South Korea whose dog lightened its weight while on a train. She refused to clean it up, and has since gained infamy on the internet - even getting an entry in the Wikipedia as 'dog poop girl'¹. The short story is that she was persecuted; she dropped out of her University and has pretty much had to live that story down after resourceful internet users pried her personal information and shared it across the Internet. Internet vigilantism had come of age... but was the response disproportionate? While it is rather disgusting that the woman did not clean up after her dog, does this mean that everyone in the world should persecute her? Over dog poop? Perhaps that is taking Broken Windows too far.

As the author notes later in the book, 'Putting gossip on the Internet is a lot like throwing meat to alligators. People snap it up in a frenzy.'

Snapping up gossip in a frenzy can have serious repercussions, and on the internet that means that disrepute can spread quickly. People seem attracted to this sort of stuff and magnify it; consider the Wikipedia itself. While 'dog poop girl' herself gets special mention, the entry on myself was deleted after I finally decided to request the deletion myself¹ (I didn't write the entry). In essence, someone who refused to clean up after their dog is preserved, while someone who tried to do something helpful after the tsunami was vigorously targeted for deletion. In the grand scheme of things, what does that say? Something I will probably write about in future.

My own experiences are rather moderate in comparison to other people's experiences; it stands to reason that more and more of these problems will be seen as more people get on the internet - remember, we're at less than 20% global internet penetration. Plus we have issues related to virtual worlds around the corner, with Virtually Blind's Benjamin Duranske defending his own reputation. These are real issues, and they will become more real to more people as the Internet continues on its own course.

With actual real world examples gleaned from the internet and put in the limelight, the author seems to leave no stone unturned in a quest for answers. Many people will have heard of some of the examples but few will have looked at them in such a circumspect a manner - and even fewer will have done so with a legal background.

Most of my time spent reading this book was spent nodding - I knew about 70% of the stories, but then I've been around a while and have been following the Internet closely- more so than most people on the internet. Still, in most instances the author was able to show me at least one new side to it. This seemed a job which makes the Herculean quest of cleaning the stables seem simple - there is no river to divert here, but there is most certainly a lot of manure. Perhaps the book is the start of the river's diversion. Cyber-bullying, Internet Vigilantism, libel, defamation... mountains are easily grown from molehills in cyberspace.

The book is very easy to read, it flows and takes on a life of its own. I could not put it down; even knowing some of the stories did not deter my interest. After much contemplation, I have decided to give the book a KnowProSE.com 10/10 score. Only one other book has been given that status, and both books have received this status because they were interesting books that were well written and important, and do one other thing in particular: they will stand the test of time. Daniel J. Solove is rapidly becoming to privacy what Lawrence Lessig is to copyright and the public domain.

If you are reading this review, you need to read this book. Who knows? My next blog entry might be about you. Of all the people who need to read this book, I think bloggers are the ones who need to read it the most: being aware of the consequences of what one writes is important in an age when everyone can write, but not everyone considers the consequences to others. Would that we all understood this better.

¹ I also forbid the Wikipedia to ever have an article on me without my express permission, so that isn't an attempt to get myself back in. Especially with dog poop girl running amok.