A critique of privacy

In this polemical paper we present a Socratian dialogue that both critiques privacy and addresses its value. The purpose of this dialogue is to address questions that are often begged in the contemporary discourse around privacy, surveillance and technology - a discourse that assumes that privacy is a personal and social good without necessarily arguing the case. To prosecute the debate we have Aspicio - who will argue that privacy is a condition that is not only limited as a personal and social good, but is undesirable in many important respects. Aspicio is confronted by Occulto, who will argue that privacy is a condition that can and should be obtained and defended. In the course of the dialogue our interlocutors discuss privacy as a right; privacy and modernity; privacy, the public sphere and the private sphere; privacy and individualism; the value of surveillance; and privacy, embarrassment and shame.