Privacy

I like privacy. I love privacy. I am willing to admit that I have an extreme, possibly unnatural need for privacy.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines privacy as:
1 a: the quality or state of being apart from company or observation : seclusion
b: freedom from unauthorized intrusion
2 (archaic) : a place of seclusion
3 secrecy

I like the Wikipedia statement:
"Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively."
In fact, after glancing over it, I recommend the entire Wikipedia entry on Privacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy).

Privacy is a complicated topic. The Wikipedia entry emphasizes that the meaning of "privacy" varies in different contexts, and that different cultures and individuals have differing "boundaries and content" of what is considered private. This variability compounds the problem that it is difficult to justify or explain one's need for privacy. Foes of privacy can always ask, "Why do you NEED privacy?" and argue that, "If you aren't doing anything WRONG, then you don't need PRIVACY." Lawmakers and lawyers have an ongoing debate regarding "The right to privacy," and many laws are written and revised governing the boundaries of privacy.

As I have already admitted, I have an extreme need for privacy. There must be some reasons, but I do not know them, and I do not particularly care about not knowing them. The fact is that I need privacy, I want privacy, and I do not believe there is anything wrong with needing and wanting privacy.

To the extent that people have gathered together and become "civilized", some loss of privacy is inevitable. Loss of privacy is a trade-off that we make in order to live among other people. Personally, I suspect I could be happy as a stereotypical old-time "mountain man", living for years without encountering other humans (I did say STEREOTYPICAL; I am not sure whether there were many true cases of mountain men living for years in solitude). Nowadays, in most parts of the world this has become impossible. In the USA, there are taxes and other dealings with "the government" and "laws" that make at least some form of human contact legally mandated, if not inevitable.

Actually, though, my personal desire is NOT for the total privacy of a totally isolated life. I just desire MORE privacy than many or most others in our society in our time. It is this issue of each of us having differing needs for privacy that adds to the difficulty.

For example, I am very private about my comings and goings. When I have chosen apartments, one of my primary criteria has been being able to get to my particular apartment without having to pass any OTHER apartments where the residents could observe my comings and goings. I do not want people to know whether I am "home" or not, or in general to know where I AM.

There is a relationship between privacy and anonymity. Last night I went to a store. I was happy that most people in the world did not know where I was during that time. Other people at the store could perceive that I was at the store, but that did not particularly bother me, especially since I had little knowledge of them and they had little knowledge of me. I was, to a large extent, anonymous, though I did not take any particular steps to conceal my identity. If someone broadcast on the radio the fact that I was at that store at that time, I would have had a strong negative reaction, just as I would if that news appeared the next day in the local newspaper.

This brings up the point that it is easy to argue, "What difference does it make if the newspaper publishes the fact that you were at the store last night?" I cannot offer a logical, eloquent reply, other than "It makes me feel bad, really bad," which is a dramatic understatement.

A key point regarding privacy and living among others is the idea of each of us deciding for ourselves what information is revealed to others, and to whom. I believe that I should be the one who decides who knows that I went to the store last night, and any information about what I did there. You'll notice that I have not mentioned what store I went to, or what I did there -- that information is none of YOUR business -- but I did make the conscious decision to reveal to you that I went to the store.

The topic of privacy is immense and expanding. New technology -- such as the Internet, cell phones, and GPS systems -- have raised new concerns, as have increasing worries over global terrorism. There are some who state emphatically that the very notion of privacy has become obsolete and perhaps a bit quaint -- we should all simply face the fact that we neither have nor are entitled to any real privacy. While there may be some underlying truth to this view -- with sufficient resources, entities such as governments and large corporations have access to vast amounts of "private" information about each of us -- the fact remains that at the moment at least the vast majority of my neighbors do not know that I went to the store last night, and this is important to me.

At this moment, I have never sent a text message, nor "twittered", nor been on "Facebook" or "MySpace", but I understand that all of these might be viewed to cast further doubts on the notion of privacy -- although an important point is that in general the individual retains at least some control over what is shared.

An age-old problem, accentuated by these new technological developments, involves "second-hand" information -- the extent to which YOU share information about ME with others. This gets very complicated, and there are no clear lines or answers. Suppose a friend accompanied me to the store last night, and had no reservations about revealing THEIR trip to the store to all of society. They might also choose to reveal who accompanied them, and who they talked to at the store, and what they saw purchased at the store -- all of which violates MY desire for privacy.

We can return endlessly to the argument, "What does it MATTER who knows that you went to the store, or what you purchased," but I will always respond that it matters to ME, and that it is none of YOUR business. In this case, there is the follow-up argument, "But your friend CHOSE to share with ME the info that THEY went to the store, so it IS my business," and THIS is where it gets complicated, more so by new technologies.

I repeat, there are no clear lines or answers. One of the ways I have always handled the situation is by attempting to choose friends and associates who have similar views on privacy to my own, or at least respect my views and attempt to accommodate them. Since I myself do not know precisely how I will deal with the privacy aspects of any situation, I cannot expect anyone to necessarily match my response, and sometimes friends will end up sharing information that I would prefer they had not shared. That is part of having friends, and living among humans. On more than one occasion, however, I have eventually decided that my friendship with certain individuals too often involved compromising my desire for privacy, and as a result decided to limit my contact with those individuals. Some might view this as extreme. We each have our own priorities.

I run headlong into my own strong feelings about privacy when I attempt to keep any sort of journal or blog. Certain people are very important to me, and integral parts of my life, and it is difficult to delve very deeply into my life or feelings without encountering ideas involving these other people. This has sometimes completely prevented me from keeping a journal or blog, but now I have decided to try. I will inevitably make mistakes, revealing information about both myself and others that both myself and others may regret. For this I humbly apologize.