Comments on: Privacy as ‘a Modern Invention’

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:18:51 +0000

Whoever thinks that privacy is a new-fangled invention should read (among other things) David Flaherty's book on “Privacy in Colonial New England” I just turned to the section in chapter 3 titled “A Man's Home is his Castle”, which quotes a section from Sir Edward Coke (1605) about the sanctity of the home. Flaherty's analysis also points out that the immunity of a dwelling had its origins in acient times, biblical literature, and Roman law.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:18:51 +0000

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:18:51 +0000

By: Nolan

Nolan — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:47:52 +0000

Privacy is not a modern invention at all. In fact, the founding fathers made sure to mention it as a right as the 4th amendment, allowing people to be secure in their possessions. This seems to give people a reasonable expectation of privacy.

By: Devan

Devan — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:05:19 +0000

It's not a modern innovation, it's a modern problem. With pervasive electronic surveillance, Internet and other technologies, the problems associated with privacy never existed 30 years ago… let alone medievel times.

By: MikeRT

MikeRT — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:21:13 +0000

In a time when amorphous “rights” to privacy seem to be multiplying like wildflowers, this is an important insight from Friedman. In my opinion, many of the creative privacy theories being concocted today are often based on false nostalgia about some forgotten time in the past when we supposedly all had our own little quiet spaces that were completely free from privacy intrusions.

And at the top of them: Roe vs. Wade. That ruling did more to bring discredit to the notion of a legal right to privacy than any other since it put infanticide under the protection of privacy rights.

By: Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:56:16 +0000

You know what other rights people didn't have in the medieval period? Speech, religion, property, etc.

By: Timon

Timon — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:23:50 +0000

I think the quote is partly wrong. In the medieval period it was possible for a king to disguise himself as a commoner and move around unnoticed in his own city -- nothing about a person's identity followed them beyond a tiny circle of intimates. And if you doubt they frequently had actual privacy you should read El Libro de buen amor!

You could equally say that the 19th century origins of contemporary "privacy" were a reaction to the loss of the hard kind that existed prior to last names, state bureaucracies, passports, birth certificates, etc. There are two idealizations happening here -- one of a mythic pre-privacy past, and then the "invention" of privacy -- a concept that appears as early as traditional Jewish law (Bava Batra, Chapter 2, Mishnah 4, to the effect that you can't put windows where you would be looking into other people's homes.)

Think back to when you were in college how ridiculous it was when people would talk about the "invention" of capitalism in 1880 via some Marxian logical contortion -- as if people hadn't been buying and selling since Mammoths roamed free. It is very rare for animals to invent new behavior, humans included. People resent nosiness and intrusions into their business, there is a very heavy burden on anyone trying to prove that there was once a time when they didn't.

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 28 May 2009 01:27:42 +0000

Yup. File privacy away with other pernicious modern amorphous 'rights' like universal suffrage and the 40 hour work week. Wouldn't want progress to sneak in anywhere