Who gets to keep a secret in a hyperconnected world? In an era where personal data has become a precious commodity, Sarah E. Igo’s thought-provoking article, “The Price of Privacy,” delves into the unsettling realities of privacy erosion and the daunting challenges individuals face in safeguarding their personal information.
Prepare to embark on an eye-opening journey as Igo unveils the hidden costs and troubling implications of living in a society where privacy is increasingly elusive. Keep reading to discover the urgent need for robust privacy protections in the digital age.
Table of Contents
- Genres
- Review
- Recommendation
- Take-Aways
- Summary
- Each individual’s privacy stands in the balance between free speech and the public’s right to know.
- Modern ideas about privacy originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- In the 21st century, invasive technology has raised public concerns about everyone’s right to privacy.
- About the Author
Genres
Privacy, Surveillance, Data Protection, Information Security, Digital Rights, Personal Data, Technology, Society, Law, Ethics
Sarah E. Igo’s article, “The Price of Privacy,” explores the complex landscape of privacy in the modern digital age. Igo highlights the pervasive nature of data surveillance and the alarming ease with which personal information is collected, analyzed, and exploited by various entities.
The article delves into the historical evolution of privacy concepts and the challenges posed by technological advancements that have blurred the lines between public and private spheres. Igo emphasizes the steep price individuals pay for the convenience and connectivity offered by digital platforms, as their personal data becomes a valuable commodity subject to manipulation and misuse.
The article underscores the urgent need for robust privacy protections and calls for a reevaluation of societal norms and legal frameworks to safeguard individual privacy rights in an increasingly data-driven world.
Review
“The Price of Privacy” is a compelling and thought-provoking article that sheds light on the critical issue of privacy in the digital era. Sarah E. Igo’s meticulous research and insightful analysis provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and complexities surrounding personal data protection.
The article’s strength lies in its ability to contextualize the erosion of privacy within historical and societal frameworks, highlighting the profound impact of technological advancements on individual autonomy and freedom. Igo’s writing style is engaging and accessible, making complex concepts easy to grasp for a wide audience.
The article serves as a powerful wake-up call, urging readers to recognize the urgent need for stronger privacy safeguards and advocating for a collective effort to reclaim control over personal information.
While the article could have benefited from more concrete examples of privacy breaches and their consequences, it nonetheless succeeds in raising crucial questions and sparking important conversations about the future of privacy in an increasingly connected world.
“The Price of Privacy” is a must-read for anyone concerned about the erosion of personal privacy and the need for robust data protection measures in the digital age.
Recommendation
The boundary between public and private life has changed in the past century. American law has struggled to balance each citizen’s personal right to privacy and the public’s right to know. As Sarah E. Igo reports in The Atlantic, new technologies enable the media, as well as social media and corporations, to invade the private sphere and feed the public’s appetite for salacious material. Public debate is percolating around the subject of privacy in a surveillance society. While it seems that only those with money can somewhat shield themselves, Igo argues persuasively that privacy should not become a right reserved for the rich and powerful, but a “collective social good” that protects everyone.
Take-Aways
- Each individual’s privacy stands in the balance between free speech and the public’s right to know.
- Modern ideas about privacy originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- In the 21st century, invasive technology has raised public concerns about everyone’s right to privacy.
Summary
Each individual’s privacy stands in the balance between free speech and the public’s right to know.
Society is voyeuristic. The public has always had an appetite for salacious stories about other people’s private lives. In the digital age, these stories are more accessible than ever.
“[Privacy is] one thing to a man who has always lived in his own house and another to a man who has always lived in a boarding house.” (E.L. Godkin, editor)
The United States has seen a heated debate for more than 100 years over the extent of a person’s right to privacy versus the public’s right to know. For example, Amy Gadja’s book, Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy, explores America’s struggle to balance the two.
In the 1880s, popular broadsides exposed people’s personal lives routinely, paying extra attention to stories featuring violence and sex. But in acknowledgment that certain matters should remain private, the US Supreme Court ruled that privacy is an “essential component of liberty” in the 2018 search and seizure case of Carpenter v. United States.
“We take for granted the constant prying that seems to come with a life hooked up to the internet. But the history of disputes over press invasions serves as a kind of barometer, revealing the cyclical nature of privacy’s fortunes. It also highlights the persistent disparities in whose privacy has mattered to lawmakers and courts.”
Despite such rulings, however, a distinction between classes has persisted. People with money and status end up having a stronger right to privacy than those without.
Modern ideas about privacy originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The advent of new technologies such as photography and the telegraph increased the ease with which people could expose others’ private lives to public scrutiny. In 1890, Boston lawyers Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis decried transgressions against privacy in a seminal essay in the Harvard Law Review. Their article helped define new parameters for seeking damages from publications that exposed “private facts.”
“Under American law, a private person could become a public one, his or her life stripped bare, simply by virtue of bad luck.”
In the 20th century, Victorian values receded, and people could not expect to escape the insatiable eye of the public. Newspapers’ First Amendment rights expanded – perhaps beyond the expectations of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton – even as journalists faced stricter guidelines. In legal disputes, juries often ruled in favor of the public’s “right to know.” In fact, juries tended to pander to people’s appetite for sex and violence.
In the 21st century, invasive technology has raised public concerns about everyone’s right to privacy.
A shift toward more careful journalism came about in the 1920s when the American Society of Newspaper Editors set professional behavioral guidelines, but that shift proved short-lived. The courts favored press freedom and gave less privacy protection to “public figures.” In time, legal definitions stretched to make almost anyone fit that parameter.
Today, social values are shifting once more as people push back against various, often surreptitious and invasive surveillance technologies, such as facial recognition and geolocation, which monitor their activities and violate their rights to privacy.
“Pitched battles over claims of privacy and publicity underscore the urgency and unsettled boundary lines of our own historical moment.”
Some trends favor individual privacy. California permits minors to erase their past social media posts. New laws criminalize users who share intimate information about others without their consent. While these protections appear somewhat random, they signal that personal privacy remains a recognized right in the 21st century. Ultimately, privacy should not be the purview of the wealthy or even the individual, but should instead become a “collective social good” protecting everyone.
About the Author
Sarah E. Igo, the Andrew Jackson Chair in American History at Vanderbilt University, also wrote The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America. The Atlantic won the Magazine of the Year General Excellence award from the American Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and 2023.