Advances in technology are shifting the focus of privacy concerns; for example, common transactions can generate information that is collected imperceptibly, and easily manipulated by ever improving automatic processes. It has become impractical and often undesirable, to prevent personal information collection, processing and use, but these are just the actions that policies have targeted to prevent privacy harms. Approaches to policy will need to adapt to secure privacy in an increasingly connected world. To determine how, Corliss reviews the history of privacy theory, beginning with its roots in the idea of a public-private divide and tracing its development to identify useful conceptions of privacy with which to evaluate policy. This discussion frames a look at recent and contemporary laws that protect privacy, and establishes the conceptual underpinnings of the prominent approaches to privacy. Based in this foundation, the author presents policy recommendations that realistically address privacy concerns.