AFFIRMATIVE PRIVACY — GENERAL 11

LACK OF PRIVACY ROBS US OF OUR AUTONOMY

LACK OF PRIVACY TAKES AWAY INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY

Fred H. Cate, Brookings Institution, 1997; PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE, EE2001 -mfp p. 24

The most serious threat to the individual's autonomy is the possibility that someone may penetrate the inner zone and learn his ultimate secrets, either by physical or psychological means. This deliberate penetration of the individual's protective shell, his psychological armor, would leave him naked to ridicule and shame and would put him under the control of those who knew his secrets.15

PRIVACY ALLOWS US TO DEVELOP CHARACTER AND A SENSE OF THE SELF, AND THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT IT IS NOT DOOMED TO FAILURE

Jeffrey Rosen, associate professor at the George Washington University Law School, The New York Times April 30, 2000, SECTION: Section 6; Page 46; TITLE: The Eroded Self // acs-EE2001

We are trained in this country to think of all concealment as a form of hypocrisy. But perhaps we are about to learn how much may be lost in a culture of transparency -- the capacity for creativity and eccentricity, for the development of self and soul, for understanding, friendship and even love. There is nothing inevitable about the erosion of privacy in cyberspace, just as there is nothing inevitable about its reconstruction. We have the ability to rebuild some of the private spaces we have lost. What we need now is the will.

THE DEONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR PRIVACY IS BASED ON RESPECT FOR AUTONOMY

David M. Studdert, Policy Analyst, RAND Institute for Civil Justice and RAND Health; "Direct Contracts, Data Sharing and Employee Risk Selection:" American Journal of Law & Medicine , 1999, 25 Am. J. L. and Med. 233, EE2001-JGM, P.254

In contrast, deontological justifications for the value of individual privacy are grounded in arguments about respect for autonomy. n156 Modern democratic states recognize a citizen's fundamental interest in pursuing his goals and participating in the life of the community without undue interference by the government or by other citizens. n157 Disclosure of personal information threatens that interest. Interference with one's personal space becomes particularly troubling when it causes stigma, prejudice or denial of important social goods, such as housing or employment. Breaches of confidentiality introduce an additional moral concern: as Lawrence Gostin notes, "there is at least an implicit promise of confidentiality embedded in the institution of medical care, and it is wrong to break a promise." n158