About privacy

The right to privacy is the right to have secrets.

right to privacy

The right to have secrets, the right to be left alone. The right to have some information about you that is protected from public scrutiny.

privacy

The state of being let alone, of having some part of your life hidden to certain other people.

Privacy means, unlike loneliness, that you actually chose it, that you want to be let alone.

Privacy is partly the opposite of community. Other people usually want to know “everything” about you. At least when they are interested in you, when they love you. You also want to know “everything” about people you are interested in.

Choosing privacy for a given aspect of your life does not mean that you keep it fully secret. It just means that you do not want it to be known to everybody. You want to communicate about it only with selected people.

“The concept of universal individual privacy is a modern concept primarily associated with Western culture and remained virtually unknown in some cultures until recent times. Most cultures, however, recognize the ability of individuals to withhold certain parts of their personal information from wider society, such as closing the door to one’s home.” Wikipedia

participate in society without having other individuals and organizations collect information about them