In Defense of Privacy

The Concept and the Regime

Bibliographic Data

ID12729530
AuthorsColin J Bennett (0000-0002-1503-8584, University of Victoria, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume8
Issue4
Pages485-496
Publication date2011-03-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSurveillance & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1477-7487 • E-ISSN: 1477-7487
PublisherSurveillance Studies Network (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.24908/ss.v8i4.4184
OpenAlexW24581508
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited11

It has recently become fashionable within the surveillance studies community to subject the concept and regime of “privacy protection” to some very rigorous criticism. “Privacy” and all that it entails is argued to be too narrow, too based on liberal assumptions of subjectivity, too implicated in rights-based theory and discourse, insufficiently sensitive to the social sorting and discriminatory aspects of surveillance, and overly embroiled in spatial metaphors about “invasion” and “intrusion.” As a concept, and as a way to frame the various social and political challenges encountered within “surveillance societies,” it is inadequate. These critiques are important, and to some extent, have set scholarly inquiry on a new, exciting and broader, trajectory than that offered by privacy scholars. On closer examination, however, these critiques are often based on some faulty assumptions about the contemporary framing of the privacy issue, and about the governance of the issue. Privacy, as a concept, regime, a set of policy instruments, and as a way to frame civil society activism, shows an extraordinary resilience. Surveillance scholars must learn to live with it

Criticism · Epistemology · Framing (construction · Internet privacy · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subjectivity · Computer Science · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Torture, Ethics, and Law

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