Your Life as an Open Book: Has Technology Rendered Personal Privacy Virtually Obsolete?

As society becomes increasingly automated, the ability of individuals to protect their information privacy is practically nonexistent. Information that was once kept on paper in filing cabinets is now on-line in computer databases. At the touch of a computer key, a complete stranger can conveniently access and compile from a variety of different sources a dossier of intimate, personal information about people without their knowledge. Perhaps more shocking is the current lack of legal recourse available to contest the nonconsensual use of personal data. In this Note, the Author examines the currently loose constitutional and common-law protections and suggests strategies litigants could utilize to create protection of information privacy. The Author argues that congressional action provides the most effective way to restrain the invasion of information privacy