| As a broad and evanescent concept, opinions differ as to what interests or values the protection of privacy is designed to achieve. At first glance, this unhappy state of affairs appears to arrive from a lack of understanding, or at least consensus, of what core liberty or liberties privacy strives to protect. If we want to protect privacy, the argument goes, then we have to ground it in something other than an inchoate, inarticulate right. The problems with the current conceptions of privacy go beyond simply delineating what kinds of things ought to be private. What is missing, and needed, is a coherent concept of privacy as a right - not whether privacy is valuable, but rather, what is it about privacy that is, or should be, protected. Is privacy a free standing right or is it simply derivative from other more recognizable causes of action. Upon what is privacy grounded? Is this really a liberty issue? The thesis in this essay is that privacy is better conceived of as an equality issue, not a liberty issue. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
