I want to highlight and summarize my takeaways from one of my favorite articles published in January on the topic of privacy: "A premature Eulogy for Privacy" by @EvanSelinger: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-premature-eulogy-for-privacy/

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In his article, Selinger pushes back on a narrative put forth in a recently published book written by Firmin DeBrebander that privacy is a lost cause. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/life-after-privacy/AEA24BF45F6A4E959E467EB3299F705A

In defense of privacy, Selinger notes that people often create protected (anonymous) accounts to avoid context-collapse and maintain the freedom of revealing different sides of themselves to different audiences.

In addition, to prevent a chilling effect on exercising political freedom, Selinger emphasizes the importance of protecting privacy to help protesters speak out against injustice without having to potentially risk everything for it.

Additionally, he outlines how privacy provides breathing room for individuals to engage in self-development, thereby fostering self-determination and allowing them to develop critical perspectives on the world around them.

https://harvardlawreview.org/2013/05/what-privacy-is-for/

Privacy provides the opportunity for people to step away from other people, to experience intimate connection, and to exercise relational autonomy through dialogue-facilitated collaborative decisions.

Consequently, privacy enables people to experience greater freedom to candidly and experimentally consider possibilities than if they were being observed, what Sellinger and Hartzog characterize as “obscurity.”

1. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2439866
2. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2711816

Finally, Selinger counters DeBradander’s conclusion that consumer privacy is broken because it relies upon a model of consent by pointing him towards the work of privacy scholars that propose an alternative vision for privacy law based on trust.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2655719

From my perspective, the importance of these values and opportunities to a well-functioning democracy cannot be understated. When people think they are being watched, they adjust their behavior & self-censor, which can have the effect of undermining essential dialogue and debate.