Robert Ellis Smith

Robert Ellis Smith


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 digital world. 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. His first book, Privacy: How to Protect What’s Left of It, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1980. Smith is the author of Ben Franklin’s Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet (2004), the first and only published history of privacy in the U.S. His latest book, available in eBook form from Kindle or orders@privacyjournal.net, is “Faces I Have Known,” up-close glimpses of famous persons he has known over six decades as a journalist.