Privacy from an Ethical Perspective

This chapter focuses on the most important and influential ethical theories of privacy. First, some of the important conceptual distinctions that figure prominently in the ethical literature on privacy will be discussed. Here, the definition and function of privacy are discussed. Second, the classical text that laid the foundation for all contemporary analyses of both the legal and moral right to privacy is discussed. Third, the most important and influential perspectives on privacy’s value, and what that implies for the norms that should regulate our behavior and policies, are discussed. In this section, perspectives that are critical of (particular aspects of) privacy are discussed as well. Fourth, some of the important contemporary ethical challenges to privacy and how they are addressed in the literature are discussed. In this section will mostly focus on technological developments and what they imply for privacy.