Privacy
The Latin word privatus referred to things set apart from what is public, personal and belonging to oneself rather than the state. This term literally means to be deprived of something through the verb privere. Ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle distinguished between the public sphere of the polis associated with political life and the private sphere of the oikos linked to domestic life. The Jewish deutero-canonical Book of Sirach valued privacy alongside other basic necessities of human existence. Islam's holy text the Qur'an states in verse 49:12 that people should not spy on one another and in verse 24:27 instructs believers not to enter houses without consent. English philosopher John Locke wrote his Second Treatise of Civil Government in 1689 arguing that men are entitled to their own self through natural rights of life liberty and property. He believed governments were responsible for protecting these rights so individuals could practice personal activities in private spaces. German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel lived from 1770 to 1831 and made distinctions between moralität referring to individual private judgment and sittlichkeit concerning rights defined by corporate orders. Jeremy Bentham who lived from 1748 to 1832 interpreted law as an invasion of privacy through his theory of utilitarianism which judged legal actions by their contribution to human wellbeing. French philosopher Michel Foucault lived from 1926 to 1984 and concluded that surveillance possibilities meant prisoners had no choice but to conform to prison rules.
An advertisement for dial telephone service available to delegates at the 1912 Republican convention in Chicago highlighted secrecy as a major selling point since no operator was required to connect calls. The first publication advocating privacy in the United States appeared in 1890 when Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis wrote The Right to Privacy mainly in response to increased newspapers and photographs enabled by printing technologies. George Orwell published 1984 in 1948 describing Winston Smith's life in Oceania where the all-controlling Party led by Big Brother controlled power through mass surveillance and limited freedom of speech. Vance Packard's book The Naked Society became popular during the 1960s and led US discourse on privacy while Alan Westin's Privacy and Freedom shifted debate from physical government control to wiretapping and photography. In 2001 the legal case Kyllo v. United States determined thermal imaging devices revealing previously unknown information without warrants violated privacy expectations. Apple and Amazon required employees to listen to intimate moments captured by smart speakers and faithfully transcribe contents after developing corporate rivalry in competing voice-recognition software in 2019. Facebook had nearly 2.7 billion members as of August 2015 uploading over 4.75 billion pieces of content daily while Twitter maintained 316 million registered users with the US Library of Congress acquiring its entire archive since 2006.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Jones in 2012 that warrantless GPS tracking of Antoine Jones' car infringed the Fourth Amendment following his arrest for drug possession. David Leon Riley was arrested in 2014 when police searched his phone without a warrant after pulling him over for expired license tags discovering evidence tied to a shooting. Timothy Ivory Carpenter faced multiple charges in 2018 when FBI used cell phone records without warrants leading to a Supreme Court ruling that such searches violated reasonable expectations of privacy under the Fourth Amendment. The Constitution of Brazil states privacy private life honor and image are inviolable while South Africa's constitution declares everyone has a right to privacy. Korea's Republic constitution protects citizens from infringement of their privacy and Italy defines similar rights within its constitutional framework. Australia enacted the Privacy Act 1988 administered by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner extending initial 1998 public sector requirements to telecommunications providers banking legal and patient relationships. Canada passed the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act enforceable federally unless provinces enact substantially similar provisions with Quebec maintaining civil law traditions. The European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation in 2016 requiring companies to receive consent before acquiring personal information though studies found lack of enforcement responsibility among institutions.
A student addressed Susan B. Barnes during a television interview about Facebook expressing concerns over disclosing personal information online yet put her home address phone numbers and pictures of her young son on her page when asked to show it. Research involving 3763 participants found women generally had greater privacy concerns than men posting selfies while users' privacy concerns inversely predicted selfie behavior and activity levels. A study showed four spatio-temporal points constituting approximate places and times could uniquely identify 95% of 1.5 million people in mobility databases even with low resolution datasets. Microsoft reported that 75 percent of US recruiters conducted online research about candidates using search engines social networking sites photo sharing platforms blogs and Twitter while 70 percent rejected candidates based on internet information. An MIT study by de Montjoye et al demonstrated coarse or blurred location datasets conferred little privacy protection despite anonymizing servers and blurring methods being proposed. AccuWeather sold locational data including user opt-out status to Reveal Mobile which monetized location-related data creating scandals around 2017 when leaky APIs exposed private addresses of 2.2 million McDelivery App users.
Digital marketing made up approximately half of global ad spending in 2019 with behavioral advertising providing code snippets used by website owners to track users via HTTP cookies. Data brokers planted within mobile apps resulted in a $350 billion digital industry especially focused on devices collecting browsing habits search history location information and personal communications. Google and Meta collect vast amounts of personal data from users through various services then analyze and aggregate this data to create detailed profiles sold to advertisers without explicit consent. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal became a major privacy concern while Apple received reactions for features prohibiting advertisers from tracking user data without consent. Google attempted introducing FLoC as an alternative to cookies claiming reduced privacy harms but retracted the proposal due to antitrust probes contradicting their claims. One experiment indicated relatively low evaluations of personal information suggesting browser history worth equivalent to cheap meals while another found attitudes to privacy risk independent of existing threats. Users may trade private information for convenience functionality or financial gain even when gains remain very small according to studies on willingness to incur privacy risks.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with privacy family home or correspondence nor attacks upon honor and reputation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published Privacy Guidelines in 1980 while the European Union's 1995 Data Protection Directive guides protection across member states. India introduced the Aadhaar project in 2009 associating all 1.2 billion Indians with 12-digit biometric-secured numbers though debates continued regarding constitutional violations and security breaches affecting social protection infrastructures. The Indian Supreme Court declared privacy a human right in 2017 yet postponed decisions about Aadhaar constitutionality until September 2018 when determining projects did not violate legal rights. The UK Information Commissioner's Office promotes access to official information protecting personal data through rulings complaints handling and law enforcement actions under Data Protection Act 1998 Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Regulations 2004. Arizona state courts found Google misled users in 2021 storing location regardless of settings while US federal law prohibits online harassment based only on protected characteristics like gender and race leaving states to expand definitions further.
Common questions
What is the origin of the word privacy?
The Latin word privatus referred to things set apart from what is public, personal and belonging to oneself rather than the state. This term literally means to be deprived of something through the verb privere.
When did Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis publish The Right to Privacy?
The first publication advocating privacy in the United States appeared in 1890 when Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis wrote The Right to Privacy mainly in response to increased newspapers and photographs enabled by printing technologies.
How does the Supreme Court rule on warrantless GPS tracking in United States v. Jones?
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Jones in 2012 that warrantless GPS tracking of Antoine Jones' car infringed the Fourth Amendment following his arrest for drug possession.
Which countries protect privacy rights within their constitutional frameworks?
The Constitution of Brazil states privacy private life honor and image are inviolable while South Africa's constitution declares everyone has a right to privacy. Korea's Republic constitution protects citizens from infringement of their privacy and Italy defines similar rights within its constitutional framework.
What was the outcome of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal regarding privacy concerns?
Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal became a major privacy concern while Apple received reactions for features prohibiting advertisers from tracking user data without consent. Google attempted introducing FLoC as an alternative to cookies claiming reduced privacy harms but retracted the proposal due to antitrust probes contradicting their claims.