Mapping the Privacy Rationales

Abstract

Why should we protect informational privacy? Scholars from various fields have explored this question and arrived at different answers. This chapter groups the rationales and aims of privacy and data protection into four different perspectives. Here, a perspective on privacy denotes a desire to achieve a specific, valued condition. Each perspective refers to a particular set of assumptions behind the protection of privacy which are generally accepted in Western societies (Cf. i.a. Bygrave, Data Protection Law—Approaching Its Rationale, Logic and Limits. The Hague: Kluwer Law International, pp. 125 et seqq., pp. 150 et seqq., 2002; Bygrave, Data Privacy Law—An International Perspective. Oxford: University Press, pp. 8 et seqq., 2014; Tavani, The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, pp. 135 et seqq., 2008). All perspectives together lead to a holistic picture of what constitutes privacy and why its protection is important. The goal here is not to provide an exhaustive survey of the philosophies behind privacy protection (and informational privacy protection in particular), but rather to structure the most relevant themes in the literature by focusing on the underlying interests of informational privacy and data protection.