by Daniel J. Solove
Why does privacy matter? Often courts and commentators struggle to articulate why privacy is valuable. They see privacy violations as often slight annoyances. But privacy matters a lot more than that.
Privacy is not just a concept—it’s your personal shield in an era where data is gold. Here are 10 compelling reasons why protecting your privacy is absolutely essential today:
1. Limit on Power
Privacy is a limit on government power, as well as the power of private sector companies. The more someone knows about us, the more power they can have over us. Personal data is used to make very important decisions in our lives. Personal data can be used to affect our reputations; and it can be used to influence our decisions and shape our behavior. It can be used as a tool to exercise control over us. And in the wrong hands, personal data can be used to cause us great harm.
Privacy stands as a barrier against the unchecked might of governments and corporations. Remember the shockwaves sent through the world after the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Modern laws like GDPR and CCPA have stepped in, but the ultimate power still lies with you. By guarding your data, you’re limiting overreach and keeping those in power honest.
2. Respect for Individuals
Privacy is about respecting individuals. If a person has a reasonable desire to keep something private, it is disrespectful to ignore that person’s wishes without a compelling reason to do so. Of course, the desire for privacy can conflict with important values, so privacy may not always win out in the balance. Sometimes people’s desires for privacy are just brushed aside because of a view that the harm in doing so is trivial. Even if this doesn’t cause major injury, it demonstrates a lack of respect for that person. In a sense it is saying: “I care about my interests, but I don’t care about yours.”
3. Reputation Management
Privacy enables people to manage their reputations. How we are judged by others affects our opportunities, friendships, and overall well-being. Although we can’t have complete control over our reputations, we must have some ability to protect our reputations from being unfairly harmed. Protecting reputation depends on protecting against not only falsehoods but also certain truths. Knowing private details about people’s lives doesn’t necessarily lead to more accurate judgment about people. People judge badly, they judge in haste, they judge out of context, they judge without hearing the whole story, and they judge with hypocrisy. Privacy helps people protect themselves from these troublesome judgments.
Your reputation is priceless, and in a time when every click creates a digital footprint, maintaining your privacy preserves your story. Outdated or misused data can paint you in an unflattering light. With smarter data protection today, you can ensure that your personal narrative stays exactly where you want it—under your control.
4. Maintaining Appropriate Social Boundaries
People establish boundaries from others in society. These boundaries are both physical and informational. We need places of solitude to retreat to, places where we are free of the gaze of others in order to relax and feel at ease. We also establish informational boundaries, and we have an elaborate set of these boundaries for the many different relationships we have. Privacy helps people manage these boundaries. Breaches of these boundaries can create awkward social situations and damage our relationships. Privacy is also helpful to reduce the social friction we encounter in life. Most people don’t want everybody to know everything about them – hence the phrase “none of your business.” And sometimes we don’t want to know everything about other people — hence the phrase “too much information.”
There’s something sacred about your personal life, and no one else should be privy to it without your say-so. Privacy isn’t just about data; it’s about protecting your dignity. In a world where every detail can be recorded and replayed, preserving your private moments ensures that your personal life remains just that—yours.
5. Trust
In relationships, whether personal, professional, governmental, or commercial, we depend upon trusting the other party. Breaches of confidentiality are breaches of that trust. In professional relationships such as our relationships with doctors and lawyers, this trust is key to maintaining candor in the relationship. Likewise, we trust other people we interact with as well as the companies we do business with. When trust is breached in one relationship, that could make us more reluctant to trust in other relationships.
Data breaches are not just a breach of trust—they can hit your wallet hard. With rising incidents of identity theft and fraud, safeguarding your information today is like locking the door on financial disaster. New statistics show a significant rise in cyber-attacks, making personal data security more critical than ever.
In today’s hyper-connected environment, every piece of personal data is a potential vulnerability. From identity theft to targeted scams, the risks are real. Protecting your privacy is your first line of defense against these modern threats—ensuring that you remain secure in an unpredictable online world.
6. Control Over One’s Life
Personal data is essential to so many decisions made about us, from whether we get a loan, a license or a job to our personal and professional reputations. Personal data is used to determine whether we are investigated by the government, or searched at the airport, or denied the ability to fly. Indeed, personal data affects nearly everything, including what messages and content we see on the Internet. Without having knowledge of what data is being used, how it is being used, the ability to correct and amend it, we are virtually helpless in today’s world. Moreover, we are helpless without the ability to have a say in how our data is used or the ability to object and have legitimate grievances be heard when data uses can harm us. One of the hallmarks of freedom is having autonomy and control over our lives, and we can’t have that if so many important decisions about us are being made in secret without our awareness or participation.
When your personal data is secure, your freedom to think, speak, and act remains uncompromised. Imagine making decisions without the nagging worry of being watched or manipulated by algorithms that profit off your information. That’s the true essence of autonomy—owning every part of your personal space.
Whether in business or personal interactions, trust is built when people know their information is safe. When you control your data, you build genuine connections—both online and offline. This trust extends from friends to business partners and even influences how companies interact with you.
7. Freedom of Thought and Speech
Privacy is key to freedom of thought. A watchful eye over everything we read or watch can chill us from exploring ideas outside the mainstream. Privacy is also key to protecting speaking unpopular messages. And privacy doesn’t just protect fringe activities. We may want to criticize people we know to others yet not share that criticism with the world. A person might want to explore ideas that their family or friends or colleagues dislike.
Creativity flourishes when you know your thoughts and expressions remain private until you decide otherwise. Without privacy, self-censorship takes hold, stifling the bold ideas that change the world. Guarding your digital footprint means keeping that spark of free expression alive and vibrant.
8. Freedom of Social and Political Activities
Privacy helps protect our ability to associate with other people and engage in political activity. A key component of freedom of political association is the ability to do so with privacy if one chooses. We protect privacy at the ballot because of the concern that failing to do so would chill people’s voting their true conscience. Privacy of the associations and activities that lead up to going to the voting booth matters as well, because this is how we form and discuss our political beliefs. The watchful eye can disrupt and unduly influence these activities.
9. Ability to Change and Have Second Chances
Many people are not static; they change and grow throughout their lives. There is a great value in the ability to have a second chance, to be able to move beyond a mistake, to be able to reinvent oneself. Privacy nurtures this ability. It allows people to grow and mature without being shackled with all the foolish things they might have done in the past. Certainly, not all misdeeds should be shielded, but some should be, because we want to encourage and facilitate growth and improvement.
When companies harvest your data without clear boundaries, they can tip the scales of the marketplace in their favor. By asserting control over your personal information, you help maintain a fair economic balance where your data isn’t used to manipulate market trends or pricing strategies against your interests.
10. Not Having to Explain or Justify Oneself
An important reason why privacy matters is not having to explain or justify oneself. We may do a lot of things which, if judged from afar by others lacking complete knowledge or understanding, may seem odd or embarrassing or worse. It can be a heavy burden if we constantly have to wonder how everything we do will be perceived by others and have to be at the ready to explain.
At its heart, privacy is about mutual respect—respect for your choices, your identity, and your individuality. When privacy is upheld, society as a whole benefits from more honest, transparent interactions. It’s a commitment to ensuring everyone’s voice is valued and protected.
Related Posts and Resources
Professor Solove’s Privacy Training Courses
Privacy Training and Data Security Training Requirements Guide
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This post was authored by Professor Daniel J. Solove, who through TeachPrivacy develops computer-based privacy training, data security training, HIPAA training, and many other forms of training on privacy and security topics. This post was originally posted on his blog at LinkedIn, where Solove is an “LinkedIn Influencer.” His blog has more than 1 million followers.
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