Why privacy matters (2)
Today’s entry on privacy features Bruce Schneier’s article “The Eternal Value of Privacy,” which ran in Wired News in May of 2006.
I said in my last entry that I am going to withhold critical commentary on these different figurations of privacy. I am forcing myself to stick to that promise. Well, I’m saying that out one side of my mouth, but out of the other I’m saying that Schneir’s article contains a number of alarm-inducing words, phrases, & claims : “inherent human right,” “human condition,” &, especially when referring to lives the framers of our Constitution lived, “You ruled your own home. It’s intrinsic to the concept of liberty.”
I’ll leave it at that; you can let your own, lil’ imagination run wild with sociologically informed critiques of Schneier’s logic.
That said, Schneier’s article is interesting in that it offers no explanation or justification for the use of surveillance. The Big Brother State video begins with the logic of those who use (& celebrate) strategies & technologies of surveillance. Schneier does not entertain that logic.
Moreover, Schneier quickly dismisses the notion that the protection of privacy is about “hiding a wrong.” No, privacy is an inherent human right; the dignity of the human condition is dependent on the protection of privacy.
Schneier attempts to situate the debate about privacy within American Constitutional history.
A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It’s intrinsic to the concept of liberty.
Does the historicization of privacy contradict Schneier’s claim that privacy is inherent or intrinsic to anything? Perhaps, but that’s another post.
I think that the important development in Schneier’s article is in his concluding remarks. The debate about privacy should not be had in terms of security versus privacy, but privacy versus control. Why? Well, this gets to the heart of why Schneier believes privacy matters.
Without privacy, individuals become
children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
The surveyed individual, or the potentially-surveyed individual, becomes compliant - first, briefly halting & considering whether there was somebody there, watching, but then quickly laughing about his paranoia. Later, though, perhaps our demeanor changes. & then freedom flees . . .
Convinced?
A) Yes
B) No
C) Maybe so
Please circle one and then discuss.
EP
Posted in surveillance, privacy |
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Marc