This chapter covers
- The uniquely personal nature of privacy
- The definition of privacy and privacy in the context of history and society
- The difference between the need for privacy and the right to privacy
- Privacy as a basic human need
- Data privacy in relation to secrecy, trust, data ownership, human psychology, and technology
If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.1
Privacy has been a charged topic going back to ancient Greece. The US was the first country to expand Constitutional protection to citizen privacy in Supreme Court decisions under the first five and the 14th amendments.2 Privacy is a very personal topic for most people, evoking strong emotions and feelings.
Privacy means different things to each person. The sphere of data, behavior, and public/private activities where people want or need privacy are unique to each individual. Privacy is especially personal when you consider the types of behavior that people want the most privacy for; we can all understand why there are differences of opinions regarding privacy and closely related topics.