week 7 privacy and autonomy Flashcards
Q: What is the classical definition of privacy according to Warren and Brandeis (1890)?
A: “The right to be let alone” — a legal recognition of the individual’s right to be free from intrusion.
Q: What are the four states of privacy?
A: Solitude – Being alone and separated from others.
Intimacy – Having close personal relationships.
Anonymity – Being in public without identification or surveillance.
Reserve – The right to withhold or disclose personal information.
Q: What are the four functions of privacy?
A: Personal autonomy – To avoid manipulation or domination.
Emotional release – A safe space to express emotions.
Self-evaluation – Time and space for personal reflection.
Limited and protected communication – Control over who accesses your thoughts or info.
Q: How has the expectation of privacy shifted from medieval times to the digital age?.
A: Initially rooted in spatial separation (the home), privacy has evolved into a legal and social concept shaped by media, technology, and information flow
Q: What is the main critique of individualistic privacy frameworks like Warren & Brandeis’?
A: They focus on elite protection and ignore broader collective and societal implications of privacy invasions such as mass surveillance and the panoptic effect.
Q: What is Priscilla Regan’s theory of privacy?
A: Regan views privacy as a collective public good, not just an individual right. She argues privacy intrusions harm not only individuals but democratic society by encouraging self-censorship and undermining public trust.
Q: How does Regan justify her collective privacy framework?
A: Like environmental protection or public health, privacy affects everyone. Mass data collection, surveillance capitalism, and breaches affect societal autonomy, public behavior, and trust in digital systems.
Q: What is Helen Nissenbaum’s theory of “contextual integrity”?
A: Privacy is preserved when information flow aligns with the social norms of the specific context — rather than simply controlling or concealing data.
Q: What are “context-relative informational norms” in Nissenbaum’s theory?
A: Social expectations that define what info is appropriate to share, with whom, and how, depending on context (e.g., doctor-patient vs. teacher-student).
Q: What is a violation of contextual integrity?
A: When info is shared in a way that violates the norms of the context (e.g., a university giving student data to vendors without consent).
Q: What are the consequences of violating contextual integrity?
A: Loss of institutional trust, legal implications, and potential changes in norms, behavior, or policy through public backlash.
Q: How do Regan and Nissenbaum both challenge traditional privacy definitions?
A: They both move beyond individualistic notions of privacy and emphasize the importance of evolving norms and societal consequences in the digital age.
Q: What is a key difference between Regan and Nissenbaum’s approaches?
A: Regan makes a normative moral argument for collective privacy as a social good. Nissenbaum focuses on descriptive, context-specific application of privacy norms.
Q: Why is privacy essential to democracy?
A: It protects free expression, prevents state overreach, and creates space for activism and whistleblowing — acting as a check on power.
Q: What is the relationship between privacy and surveillance capitalism?
A: Surveillance capitalism commodifies personal data, which threatens individual autonomy and collective freedom, influencing public behavior and narrowing cultural diversity.
Q: What is the “panoptic effect” in privacy discourse?
A: A disciplinary impact from mass surveillance where people self-censor out of fear — not just a loss of privacy, but a harm to freedom and authenticity
