This article joins in and extends the contemporary debate on the right to privacy. We bring together two strands of the contemporary discourse on privacy. While we endorse the prevailing claim that norms of informational privacy protect the autonomy of individual subjects, we supplement it with an argument demonstrating that privacy is an integral element of the dynamics of all social relationships. This latter claim is developed in terms of the social role theory and substantiated by an analysis of the role of privacy in intimate relationships, in professional relationships and in social interactions between strangers in public. We conclude by arguing that it is not always reasonable to assume a conflict between individual privacy on the one hand and society on the other. Legislators and participants in public debate also have to take into account the consequences of limiting privacy on social interaction and the integration of the society.
- a number of scholars have argued that the significance of privacy goes beyond the individual interests it protects. Protecting individual privacy means not only that the rights of individuals are protected, but also that different forms of social interaction are safeguarded.
Throughout this article we have made three points.
- First, along the lines of sociological reflections on privacy, we have argued that privacy is a structural element of social interactions. In particular, we have argued that norms governing informational privacy are necessary for and regulate social relationships. In intimate relationships, in professional relationships and in social interactions between strangers in public, the social and sometimes legal norms governing informational privacy do not merely regulate these relationships; they are also necessary for them. Therefore, privacy is an integral element of the dynamics of all social relationships.63 A transparent society, a society without privacy, would be a society deprived of meaningful social relations.
- Second, this claim has supplemented the view according to which norms of informational privacy protect the autonomy of individual subjects. By facilitating social interaction, norms of privacy contribute to creating the social conditions that are required for the successful exercise of individual autonomy. These claims suggest that norms of privacy work in two ways: they protect the autonomy of individuals and they are necessary for social relations.
- In defending these claims this article has, third, brought together two strands of the contemporary discourse on privacy. We have argued that the control and regulation of informational privacy should be viewed not only under the perspective of individual rights, but also as being necessary for social interactions themselves, and therefore as relevant to the integration of society.
Legislators and participants in public debate also have to take into account the consequences of limiting privacy on social interaction itself, the ways in which relationships would change and therefore the ways in which social practices would be potentially distorted or threatened.65