Social and Political Dimensions of Privacy

TLDR

The article situates privacy evolution across three eras by examining new technologies, shifting social climates, and organizational and legal developments. The article proposes a framework for analyzing privacy in modern societies, defining information privacy and outlining three levels that structure privacy values. The framework is applied to three contemporary eras (1961–1979, 1980–1989, 1990–2002) to analyze privacy developments across citizen‑government, employee‑employer, and consumer‑business relationships. The study analyzes the impact of the 9/11 attacks on privacy balances and offers predictions for future privacy developments. The issue’s articles are contextualized throughout with respect to the proposed framework.

Abstract

This article provides a framework for analyzing privacy in modern societies, defining information privacy and describing three levels that structure the values assigned to privacy. After describing a contemporary privacy baseline (1945–1960), these concepts are applied to social and political privacy developments in three contemporary eras of steadily growing privacy concerns and societal responses across citizen‐government, employee‐employer, and consumer‐business relationships in 1961–1979, 1980–1989, and 1990–2002. Each period is described in terms of new technology applications, changing social climates, and organizational and legal developments. Effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on privacy balances are analyzed and predictions for future privacy developments are presented. The relationship of articles in this issue to the author's framework is noted throughout.