Colin Bennett’s book The Privacy Advocates (published in 2008)(1) attempted to profile the civil society organizations which, at the time, were attempting to advance the cause of privacy protection in the face of enormous technological challenges, and government and corporate resistance. The network was dispersed, uncoordinated, heavily dominated by US-based organizations, and chronically under-resourced.

Nevertheless, the network, working alongside and sometimes in creative tension with the world’s data protection authorities (DPAs), could boast some notable successes. The Privacy Advocates hopefully made a convincing case for the importance of domestic privacy advocacy organizations that could operate outside of the government and the corporate sector. The book remains the only book-length analysis of this crucially important network.