Privacy in the Information Age

15 February

• So, is there even a universal concept of privacy, or is it all going to be culture-dependent? This is the Westin reading, by the way. Westin says all cultures have:
  1. Some kind of needs for individual or group privacy. When there's not physical privacy, there can be psychological isolation, and veils and such.
  2. A way that we perceive our situation when we are alone (is there fear of isolation, or is this a state to be desired, etc.)?
  3. Tendency to invade the privacy of others. Interest in others' affairs. There's gossip everyplace, in other words.
  4. How understandings of privacy "move" (i.e., from primitive to modern society): opportunities for privacy change (are there single-family homes, etc.)?
  Now, clearly, there are gross cultural generalizations all over the place. And language, also, reflects culture, so don't forget about that.
• Note that every culture has trust, love, and friendship: if privacy is a necessary precondition, it must be there. So why does it vary so much, and why can't we spot universal themes? And there are class distinctions as well: physical crowding, access to technology, etc.
• Fried: a little kooky, maybe. Seems to think you can't violate someone's privacy without their knowledge; maybe, in a tort sense, that would be correct-- no harm, no foul.
• Some contrasts between US and EU:

  US	EU
  Freedom from intrusion (esp. by the state, and esp. in the home)	Dignity, how people are treated in public (esp. the media)
  	Law of insult, moral harrassment

  Maybe there's some convergence: the Basic Fair Information Principles (FTC).
• See Whitman, James. 113 Yale Law Journal 1151.
• Is it a violation of privacy when someone asks a prying question?