ANN ARBOR—A free public lecture series that explores the interrelationship between telecommunications and law will bring speakers from public policy, business, law, medicine and science to the University of Michigan this year.

“Privacy in the Information Age: Here Today Gone Tomorrow?” also will feature small discussions with the speakers and an ongoing series of campus forums led by U-M faculty, staff and students.

On Oct. 23, Alan Westin, will speak on “The Future of Privacy in an Age of High Technology, Voyeurism, and Terrorists,” at 7 p.m. in Room 100, Hutchins Hall at the U-M Law School, 625 S. State St.

Westin is professor emeritus of public law and government at Columbia University; publisher of Privacy & American Business; and president of the Center for Social & Legal Research. He has a law degree and a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University, and is the author or editor of 26 books on constitutional law, civil liberties and civil rights, privacy, and American politics.

He founded Privacy & American Business, a non-profit think tank that provides expert analysis and a balanced voice on business-privacy issues, and is co-principal of Privacy Consulting Group (PCG). Westin’s major books on privacy, “Privacy and Freedom” (1967) and “Databanks in a Free Society” (1972) were pioneering works that prompted U.S. privacy legislation and helped launch global privacy movements in many democratic nations in the 1960s and 70s.

Other speakers include David Brin on Nov. 14, and Peter Swire on Dec. 4. Brin will speak on “A World Filled With Cameras: Security at the Cost of Freedom? Or Can We Have Both?” Swire’s talk is titled “Privacy and Security in Light of Recent Events.”

Brin is the author of “The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy?” (1998). Self-described “crackpot and prolific science-fiction writer,” Brin has a triple career as scientist, public speaker, and author. He has a Ph.D. in physics, but is best known for his science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller “The Uplift War,” Hugo Award-winner “Startide Rising,” and “The Postman.”

Swire served as the Clinton administration’s chief counselor for privacy, and was White House coordinator for the proposed and final HIPAA medical privacy rules. He coordinated administration policy on the use of personal information in the public and private sectors, and played a leading role on topics including financial privacy, Internet privacy, encryption, public records and privacy, e-commerce policy, and computer security and privacy.

Swire has published extensively in law reviews and in publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, the American Banker, and others.

Swire is a visiting professor at George Washington University Law School, and a professor of law at Ohio State University, where he teaches courses on privacy, the law of cyberspace, and other subjects.

This lecture series is sponsored by the Park Foundation through a grant to support colloquia and research regarding the interrelationship between telecommunications and law, and the following U-M units: Law School; Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; School of Information; College of Engineering, and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

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Alan WestinPrivacy & American BusinessDavid BrinThe Uplift WarLaw School