Privilege, power, and the perversion of privacy protection

This essay examines the tension between individual privacy and the societal need for protection against terrorists, as well as the tradeoffs that societies contemplate in order to protect themselves. It is noted that privacy protections run the risk of becoming a tool of the powerful, analogous to the (alleged) abuse of pre-reform libel laws. The nature of modern life has led to a de facto surrender of privacy rights. Indeed, quoting from the famous Warren and Brandeis article, it is arguable that a “true understanding of life lived fully in a modern state reveals that the average person is almost never ‘left alone.’ The effects of legislation such as the GDPR are examined to illustrate the point. Finally, while we acknowledge that, when privacy interests are weighed against security interests, the balance will usually favor security, it is questionable whether it can be proven that giving up more privacy rights would necessarily improve the security situation.