Should we worry about our diminishing sphere of privacy?

[Music] Hi, I’m Ryan Jenkins, a philosophy professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. As the price of electronics has fallen in the last several decades, we’ve seen impressive new devices spring up everywhere, including getting smaller and cheaper and faster and more capable and on and on. One result of this is the development of new technologies that combine cameras, data transmission, storage, and analysis. That is to say: surveillance systems that have been popping up in more and more places. Now, “closed circuit TVs” are nothing new — and we’ve been broadcasting from one location to another for 60 or 70 years. But what people are worried about nowadays is that as more of these cameras proliferate, there are fewer and fewer places where we’re not under surveillance. This includes a lot of public spaces, including Western countries like England. London, somewhat surprisingly, has more surveillance cameras watching its streets and alleys than anywhere else -- several million cameras! This might make us uneasy, sure. But should it make us worried? And is something wrong going on here? Well, it depends on what privacy is and why it matters. Let's try to follow a train of thought. Why do we care about not being watched? Why does it make us feel uneasy? Probably because we want to be able to do things without other people watching us. But why? What kinds of things? If we have nothing to hide, as it’s often said, why do we care? Well, first of all — even if we have nothing to hide, we still value our privacy. No one uses a public restroom without closing the door. What you’re doing in there isn’t secret or wrong — but you sure want to keep it private, and that's perfectly reasonable. Privacy is important even if we’re not doing anything nefarious. But maybe we value our privacy because we want to have a “sphere of protected activities”. We want to be able to write, think, and do things without other people watching us and scrutinizing us. We want to try on personalities, identities, and character traits to see if they fit us. We need a space like this to practice our individuality and to grow as people. Being watched stifles this freedom. As the Supreme Court has said, it creates a “chilling effect” — maybe not violating our rights, but making us less likely to exercise them in the way we’re entitled to. This is not the only theory of the nature of privacy and why it’s important, but it’s a classic one, and a pretty good one. Now, some people will say that we have no expectation of privacy when we are in public. But let's consider the full force of this claim. Having no privacy in public doesn't just mean that we’re being watched when we're outside — it means we’re also being watched in many of the private establishments we go into — restaurants, shopping malls, stadiums, etc. More and more, it seems like as soon as we leave the house, we’re being watched by someone, somewhere. And these instances quickly add up! Imagine I go for a walk outside, and my neighbor notices that I chose to wear a black shirt today. Have they violated my privacy? Probably not. In a case like that, sure, I can be comfortable knowing that some people might notice me and remember what I look like, what I’m wearing, that I went into my local coffee shop and came out 10 minutes later holding a cup. No big deal. But then imagine that someone followed me around <i>all</i> day. They wrote down what I wore; when packages arrived at my house; they noted whom I hang out with; where I go to work and play; that I walk my son to the local playground after I pick him up from school, and so on. Imagine they stored all this in a big filing cabinet under a file with my name on it. That seems different. In that case, it would be reasonable for me to feel uneasy — even violated. I might start changing my behavior; I might be anxious when I go into public; I might wonder if the information could be used against me… But isn’t that just several individual instances of someone “watching me,” just all added up? Yes it is! Somewhere along this line, a “difference in degree” really does become a “difference in kind.” What is innocent, if it happens once, can become problematic if repeated several times. Just pointing out that there’s a spectrum — from seeing me once to watching me all the time — doesn’t show that there’s not a real difference between one side of the spectrum and another. Perhaps the best way of understanding the concern with privacy is that as tools for watching, monitoring, and tracking our behavior become cheaper, surveillance will become more common . And the more we’re surveilled — in public spaces, in private spaces, even in our homes or in our digital behavior — the more we move toward a world where we’re being watched all the time. And that starts to undermine our freedom to express ourselves, to explore ideas or activities, and to grow as people. Which we all value. What do you think? [Music]