The topic of privacy appears in many traditional academic disciplines, and of late, in the world of pop culture. “That is a source of strength, for it raises the profile of privacy as a value, an interest and a right” (Raab, 2008). Exploring these intersects gives a hint at the range of both scholarly and non-scholarly work outside the traditional sciences. It can also serve to inform any formal model to measure privacy.
Researchers in psychology and sociology are often interested in privacy for mental health and group dynamics respectively. Psychology can approach privacy as a dependency for establishing social relationships (Magi, 2011). Sociology and social psychology examine privacy from the perspective of the group. Within that group, some scholars examine the impact of privacy deprivation notionally related to Bentham’s panopticon and the balance between forced and chosen solitary confinement as an expression of privacy (Bentham, 1791; Goffman, 1961). Others look at the threshold necessary for balancing individual needs for privacy against the common good (Allen, 1998; Etzioni, 2005). Gender studies also strongly debate privacy. MacKinnon’s seminal work on a feminist theory of the state expresses a strong critique of privacy, calling for feminism to explode the private, and see the political as personal (MacKinnon, 1989). Others continue that exploration by examining gender implications of the public / private distinction (Gavison, 1992). Economic researchers also examine privacy, studying for example the cost or revenue gained or lost from information disclosure (Acquisti & Grossklags, 2005; Acquisti, 2004; Berthold & Böhme, 2010).
Themes on privacy and surveillance appear in modern art in both individual artists and exhibits. Surveillance art is a form of critical social practice, and crosses over many of the traditional boundaries that separate art and design (Shanken, 2014). Generally, it uses technology to record a data subject in order to comment on either the process, technology or act of surveillance itself. Vito Acconci’s Following Piece (1969) involved following a different person every day until that person ‘entered a private place’. Other works around this time in the United States were presented as commentaries in the wake of the House Un-American Activities Committee (Shanken, 2014). Other exhibits from Bruce Nauman, Live Taped Video Corridor (1970) and Peter Weibel’s Observation of the Observation: Uncertainty (1976) used closed circuit video to play with notions of identity and observation: Robert Adrian and Helmut Mark transformed every television set in Austria into a surveillance monitor for a brief moment to transform it in to a public communication in the early eighties.
Exhibits dedicated to surveillance art appeared in the early 2000, with the CTRL-Space exhibit in Germany. The Tate Modern hosted an exhibit titled Exposed in 2010. Both were dedicated to interruption of privacy by surveillance (Levin, 2001; Serota, 2010). Watching You, Watching Me organized by the Open Society Foundations (2014) demonstrated new ways to interact with surveillance, including a tapestry of reproductions of 32,000 photos taken of and by the artist (Hasan Elahi). Sanctum (2014) is an interactive exhibit that requests viewers consent to facial recognition scanning and subsequently displays a live feed of publicly available data about them. Modern painters also use concepts of identity and surveillance in their art, Luc Tuymans has several works that appear to be a painting of a still image from a video surveillance camera, one in the woods (The Park, 2005) and the other in a bathroom stall aptly titled CCTV (2008).
The origins of privacy can be traced back to ancient philosophy in Artistotle’s distinction between public and private spheres of activity (Everson, 1996). Privacy can be seen as a component of a spiritual relationship between an individual and their religious practice, while in a social context it is most often discussed in the context of the protection of religious rights by the state, and / or the debate over the separation of church and state depending on the country (Lyon & Van Die, 2000; Ritter, 2000). Privacy themes can be clearly identified in classic literature and modern novels. A few examples, George Orwell’s 1984 (and Zamyatin’s We), Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, Zelazny’s Lord of Light, John Brunner’s Shockwave Rider, several Philip K. Dick novels, including The Minority Report and a Scanner Darkly. Most tend towards dystopias, but some more modern books, such as Brown’s Digital Fortress, praise mass surveillance.
Similarly, privacy themed movies span genres (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2012). Louis 19, le roi des ondes is a comedy dealing with the reality of reality television stardom. The Conversation, Enemy of the State and Cacheare all set in current day, and highlight tension between technology and privacy as well as the emotional impact of a lack of privacy.
Taken together, one could suggest that privacy is indeed, everything.