

These capabilities may lead to negative effects on individuals, groups and even society as it chills action, excludes, and discriminates. It is now possible for companies and governments to monitor every conversation we conduct, each commercial transaction we undertake, and every location we visit. We can now uniquely identify individuals amidst mass data sets and streams, and equally make decisions about people based on broad swathes of data. For instance, our capabilities to protect privacy are greater today than ever before, yet the capabilities that now exist for surveillance are without precedent. Technology has always been intertwined with this right. the restraints we place upon the power of the state.the rules governing the conduct of commerce and,.In modern society, the deliberation around privacy is a debate about modern freedoms.Īs we consider how we establish and protect the boundaries around the individual, and the ability of the individual to have a say in what happens to him or her, we are equally trying to decide: It gives us a space to be ourselves without judgement, allows us to think freely without discrimination, and is an important element of giving us control over who knows what about us. Privacy is essential to who we are as human beings, and we make decisions about it every single day. The rules that protect privacy give us the ability to assert our rights in the face of significant power imbalances.Īs a result, privacy is an essential way we seek to protect ourselves and society against arbitrary and unjustified use of power, by reducing what can be known about us and done to us, while protecting us from others who may wish to exert control.

Privacy helps us establish boundaries to limit who has access to our bodies, places and things, as well as our communications and our information. Privacy enables us to create barriers and manage boundaries to protect ourselves from unwarranted interference in our lives, which allows us to negotiate who we are and how we want to interact with the world around us. Privacy is a fundamental right, essential to autonomy and the protection of human dignity, serving as the foundation upon which many other human rights are built.
