Privacy is such a small word. We all have our own idea about what it means to be “private.” Based on our discussion last Thursday, it is much more than “The right to be let alone”, which is how Samel Warren and Louis Brandeis defined it…back in the late 19th century. Unfortunately, our government cannot agree on what that actually looks like, and we are in 2023 with all sorts of technological advancements that make sure we are always connected, which are surely not “leaving us alone,” since by just scrolling though Facebook or Instagram, our phones are telling us to buy something that it thinks we will like based on…any information it is allowed to gather on us.
I couldn’t help but think about the fairytale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears while I read Daniel J. Stove’s article ” ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings on Privacy”. Solove argues that the conceptualization of privacy faces a dilemma in that it can be either too vague or too descriptive. We haven’t come up with a definition of privacy that is “just right” legally, and as Cindy says regarding jurists, politicians, and scholars, “It’s not like their whole profession is based on confidentiality. Right?”
Further, while reading Stove’s article, the idea that a person has nothing to hide if they are not guilty or engaged in something unlawful made me wonder that if in order to have a defined idea of what privacy is and what we expect regarding the law and how we are monitored, do we as a nation need to have a set of core values and ethics regarding privacy, and an understanding of what it means to be “let alone” when we are not engaged in something unlawful, but don’t exactly want everyone knowing about it either? For example, Julie and Cindy mentioned certain conversations that they have with their friends and loved ones that they wouldn’t exactly want others to hear besides their own disclosed parties, yet they are not doing anything illegal in having these conversations. How do we protect the confidentiality of these conversations and our other digital privacy concerns?
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