Introduction

Philosophy is a rich discipline consisting of many branches that focus on a wide range of questions. Epistemology, for instance, is the study of knowledge and focuses on questions like ‘What conditions need to be fulfilled for something to count as knowledge?’ Aesthetics is another example, which is the study of (the nature of) art and beauty. Ethics is the branch of philosophy that, in its most general sense, is concerned with the question of what we ought to do. More specifically, ethicists often focus on normative questions concerning (1) the value of certain goods, practices, or norms, and (2) how – given those values – we should act and relate to each other. The ethics of privacy, then, focuses on questions such as ‘What is the value of privacy?’ and ‘What privacy norms should be respected by individuals (including ourselves), society, and the state?’

The formulation ‘the ethics of privacy’ might suggest that there is one ethics of privacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Precisely because ethics is concerned with normative questions, there are no fixed answers to any of these questions. The answer to a normative question admits to different degrees or plausibility, relative to the arguments provided. As a result, different ethicists develop and argue for different theories of the value of privacy, which, in turn, often implies that they also identify different norms that should regulate privacy-related behaviours and policies.

This chapter will focus on the most important and influential ethical theories of privacy. First, some of the important conceptual distinctions that figure prominently in the ethical literature on privacy will be discussed. Here, the definition and function of privacy are discussed. Second, the classical text that laid the foundation for all contemporary analyses of both the legal and moral right to privacy is discussed. Third, the most important and influential perspectives on privacy's value, and what that implies for the norms that should regulate our behaviour and policies, are discussed. In this section, perspectives that are critical of (particular aspects of) privacy are discussed as well.