The Ink-Pot and the Palette

I didn't feel like it was intended to be more comforting so much as more accurate, like, as long as people are freaked out about being watched in their private moments, they're going to spend more energy putting pieces of tape over the webcam than in seriously considering what's wrong with their government.

The "right to privacy," from what I understand in my limited reading, is implied but not specifically guaranteed in the US constitution--mostly because nobody really knows how to define privacy. It comes up over and over again in cases ranging child-rearing and abortion to language instruction, to sexual practices. It's a huge issue but, kind of like pornography, has that "I can't define it but I know it when I see it" quality which, not incidentally, is ever-changing.

On this issue--which I don't want to make light of because I'm really struggling to find a rational landing-place for it in my own thoughts and actions--my thinking has been influenced a lot by Jeff Jarvis's Public Parts. The book's subtitle discloses its bias clearly: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live.

However, Jarvis does delve into the history of the concept of privacy, challenging many of my unexamined beliefs, particularly the one labeled "creepy." In interviews, Jarvis found that people's objections to things like Google's collection of cookie data boil down to "it's creepy." When asked to define "creepy," most people can't. It's just a feeling. Whether the feeling arises from some evolutionary impulse or from cultural training is anyone's guess, really, but Jarvis advocates for examining it.

Mind you, he is talking about net neutrality and freedom of the internet, and not so much about government spying. His book came out in the wake of CISPA, and, because he has strong ties with Germany, in response to German legislation restricting things like Google Street View pictures of houses.

Along with other journalists and privacy commentators, he now seems to be trying to define a rational position in response to the NSA disclosures. I'm following the conversation pretty closely, because it's not an issue I feel qualified to decide on without a lot of additional information.

Meanwhile, here's a darkly humorous look at the issue that you might enjoy.