Mari Frank Interviews Robert Ellis Smith, Journalist and Publisher of the Privacy Journal

Robert Ellis Smith is a journalist who uses his training as an attorney to report on the individual's right to privacy. Since 1974, he has published Privacy Journal, a monthly newsletter on privacy in a computer age based in Providence, R.I. Smith is a frequent speaker, writer, and Congressional witness on privacy issues and has compiled a clearinghouse of information on the subject: computer data banks, credit and medical records, the Internet, electronic surveillance, the law of privacy, and physical and psychological privacy. Smith is the author of Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet (Spring 2000), the first and only published history of privacy in the U.S. He is also the author of Our Vanishing Privacy (1993), The Law of Privacy Explained (1993), Privacy: How to Protect What's Left of It; Workrights, a book describing individual rights in the work place; and The Big Brother Book of Lists. Privacy Journal also publishes Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws, Celebrities and Privacy, and War Stories, a collection of anecdotes on privacy invasions. The New York Times said Smith "sounds the alarm about maintaining freedom and privacy in the computer age" and called him "a principled critic." Privacy Journal is "a privacy watchdog," according to Time, and "the paper of record for lawyers and others interested in privacy rights," according to U.S. News and World Report. Smith, has been asked to write the definitive statement on privacy in the last two editions of The World Book Encyclopedia. He has appeared on all three network morning news programs, as well as "Face the Nation," "Nightline," and "All Things Considered." He has been a regular commentator on "Marketplace" on American Public Radio. WWW.PRIVACYJOURNAL.NET