Computing & IT
July 2023
The seven veils of privacy
How our debates about privacy conceal its nature
by Kieron O'Hara
Privacy is one of the most contested concepts of our time. This book sets out a rigorous and comprehensive framework for understanding debates about privacy and our rights to it. Much of the conflict around privacy comes from a failure to recognise divergent perspectives. Some people argue about human rights, some about social conventions, others about individual preferences and still others about information and data processing. As a result, 'privacy' has become the focus of competing definitions, leading some to denounce the 'disarray' in the field. But as this book shows, disagreements about the role and value of privacy obscure a large amount of agreement on the topic. Privacy is not a technical term of law, cybersecurity or sociology, but a word in common use that adequately expresses a few simple and related ideas.
