Privacy 6.0: privacy as mental integrity

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the idea of privacy as mental integrity is an emerging socio-cultural narrative that is likely to shape the legal understanding of privacy in significant ways. We begin the chapter by examining the ways pre-existing socio-cultural narratives can shape the interpretation, application and development of legal norms. Next, we seek to identify and discuss major narratives about privacy that have emerged to date. We propose that there are at least five such narratives: (1) privacy as property, (2) privacy as the ‘right to be let alone’, (3) privacy as control, (4) privacy as anonymity, and (5) privacy as obscurity. It is against this background that we examine the emergence of a sixth major narrative: privacy as mental integrity