The Transparent Society (1998, ISBN 0-7382-0144-8, ISBN 020132802X) is a non-fiction book by the science-fiction author David Brin in which he forecasts the erosion of privacy, as it is overtaken by low-cost surveillance, communication and database technology. He argues that we must choose between privacy and freedom in the new "transparent society" that is being created. He argues that it could be good for society if the surveillance is equal for all, and the public has the same access as those in power.

Brin's novel Kiln People is placed in a future where cameras are everywhere and everybody can access the public ones and, for a fee, the private ones. Also a law prizes delation of bad practices.

The collation of all publicly and privately available personal data in the United States by the Information Awareness Office is viewed by some as a move towards the future envisaged by Brin in his book.

A prototype transparent society was explored by the Bentham brothers in their Panopticon.

Transparency is sometimes confused with equiveillance (the balance between surveillance and sousveillance). This balance (equilibrium) allows the individual to construct their own case from evidence they gather themselves, rather than merely having access to surveillance data that could possibly incriminate them. Sousveillance therefore, in addition to Transparency, assures contextual integrity of surveillance data (i.e. a lifelong capture of personal experience can provide "best evidence" over surveillance data to prevent the surveillance-only data from being taken out of context).

External link

• At Brin's official pages.
• The pitfalls of privacy.
• http://www.kithrup.com/brin/tschp1.html