Privacy Techtonics

Feminist Geopolitics of Privacy, Whatsapp and Democracy in India
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5292-3596-8
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Today, privacy is more than a personal choice—it’s a terrain shaped by power, politics and everyday life.

This book shifts the lens from established western narratives to India, WhatsApp’s largest market, exploring how digital privacy is lived, built, and regulated on the world’s digital peripheries. Drawing on rich field-based research, it examines encrypted technologies, the ties between big tech and governments, and the role of messaging apps in political life.

This is a sharp and grounded account of how privacy can both strengthen and erode democracy in the digital age.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Williams, Philippa

Kamra, Lipika

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wissenssoziologie, Wissenschaftssoziologie, Techniksoziologie
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik EDV & Informatik Allgemein Soziale und ethische Aspekte der EDV
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. ‘The Future Is Private’

2. WhatsApp? Why India?

3. Privacy Techtonics

4. The Politics of Digital Private Messaging

5. Privacy and the Law

6. Privacy-by-design

7. Privacy Is (Geo)political

8. WhatsApp (in) Business

9. Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Kamra, Lipika
Lipika Kamra is Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Birmingham.

Williams, Philippa
Philippa Williams is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary University of London.

Philippa Williams is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary University of London.

Lipika Kamra is Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Birmingham.