ABSTRACT
The use of cookies on the Internet—small computer files that track individuals' web surfing—has sparked the most recent privacy debates. The free-expression component of privacy is complicated by concerns over access to information. The concept of the invasion of privacy has been traced to a law review written by Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren in 1890 in which it was proposed that the individual has a common-law right to be let alone—even in a case in which media reporting is truthful. Privacy can be treated as an issue related to traditional concerns over wiretapping or the illegal interception of personal communications. In general, privacy law attempts to protect people by determining expectations for privacy and by setting standards of reasonableness. The technology itself may lead to the invasion of privacy in a variety of ways. Technology that impacts on privacy, though, extends well beyond the Internet.
