Playing the Identity Card: Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective
Edited by David Lyon and Colin Bennett
Routledge, 2008

In some ways a companion to Identifying Citizens, this book pulls together for the first time a number of important and illuminating essays on ID cards in today’s world. Unlike some collections, that focus only on Europe or North America, this one includes work on China, India, Japan, and South Africa, which provide stimulating counterpoints to already existing debates. It becomes clear that how ID cards are “played” depends on local historical, cultural and political conditions. Co-edited with Colin J. Bennett, Playing the Identity Card will also be linked to a web-site where further information and debates over IDs will be available.

The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance
by Colin J. Bennett
MIT Press, 2008

Today, personal information is captured, processed, and disseminated in a bewildering variety of ways, and through increasingly sophisticated, miniaturized, and distributed technologies: identity cards, biometrics, video surveillance, the use of cookies and spyware by Web sites, data mining and profiling, and many others. In The Privacy Advocates, Colin Bennett analyzes the people and groups around the world who have risen to challenge the most intrusive surveillance practices by both government and corporations. Bennett describes a network of self-identified privacy advocates who have emerged from civil society—without official sanction and with few resources, but surprisingly influential.
--The MIT Press

Visit the companion website here: privacyadvocates.ca

The Governance of Privacy: Policy Instruments in Global Perspective
by Colin J. Bennett and Charles Raab
MIT Press, 2006

Privacy protection, according to Colin Bennett and Charles Raab, involves politics and public policy as much as it does law and technology. Moreover, the protection of our personal information in a globalized, borderless world means that privacy-related policies are inextricably interdependent. In this updated paperback edition of The Governance of Privacy Bennett and Raab analyze a broad range of privacy policy instruments available to contemporary advanced industrial states, from government regulations and transnational regimes to self-regulation and privacy-enhancing technologies. They consider two possible dynamics of privacy regulation—a "race to the bottom," with competitive deregulation by countries eager to attract global investment in information technology, versus "a race to the top," with the progressive establishment of global privacy standards.
--The MIT Press

Other books:

Bennett, Colin. Regulating Privacy: Data Protection and Public Policy in Europe and the United States. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Japanese translation, Tokyo: Bunshindo, 1995.

Bennett, Colin and Rebecca Grant (eds.) Visions of Privacy: Policy Choices for the Digital Age. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.

Other publications

“Unsafe at any Altitude: The Comparative Politics of No-Fly Lists in the United States and Canada,” in M. B. Salter, Politics at the Airport (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008)

“What happens when you book an airline ticket? The collection and processing of passenger data post-9/11,” in E. Zureik and M. B. Salter, Global Surveillance and Policing (Portland: Willan, 2005)

"Information Policy and Information Privacy: International Arenas of Governance" (PDF), Journal of Law, Technology and Policy, December, 2002.

"The Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Multiple Roles, Diverse Expectations and Structural Dilemmas," Canadian Public Administration, Vol. 46, No. 2, Summer 2003

"Cookies, web bugs, webcams and cue cats: Patterns of Surveillance on the World Wide Web," Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2001.

"The Distribution of Privacy Risks: Who Needs Protection?" The Information Society, Vol. 14, No. 4, October 1998.

"Arguments for the Standardization of Privacy Protection Policy: Canadian Initiatives and American International Responses," Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 4, 1997.

"Adequate Data Protection by the Year 2000: The Prospects for Privacy in Canada," International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1997.

"The Adequacy of Privacy: The European Union Data Protection Directive and the North American Response," The Information Society, Vol. 13, 1997. (with Charles D. Raab)

"Protecting Privacy on the Canadian Information Highway: Policy Developments and Regulatory Options," The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Science, Vol. 21, No. 3-4, December 1996.

"Taking the Measure of Privacy: Can Data Protection be Evaluated?" International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 62, No. 4, December 1996. (with Charles D. Raab).

"Rules of the Road and Level-Playing Fields: The Politics of Data Protection in Canada's Private Sector," International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 62, No. 4, December 1996.

"Protecting Privacy Across Borders: European Policies and Prospects," Public Administration, Vol. 72, No. 1, Spring 1994 (with Charles D. Raab).