Noun

Singular privacy

Plural countable and uncountable; plural privacies

privacy (countable and uncountable; plural privacies)

1. The state of being private; the state of not being seen by others.

Related terms

• private

Dutch

Noun

privacy f.

1. privacy

Italian

Noun

privacy f. inv.

1. privacy

Privacy (from Latin privatus 'separated from the rest, deprived of sth, esp. office, participation in the government', from privo 'to deprive') is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.

The right against unsanctioned invasion of privacy by the government, corporations or individuals is part of many countries' privacy laws, and in some cases, constitutions. Almost all countries have laws which in some way limit privacy; an example of this would be law concerning taxation, which normally require the sharing of information about personal income or earnings. In some countries individual privacy may conflict with freedom of speech laws and some laws may require public disclosure of information which would be considered private in other countries and cultures. Privacy may be voluntarily sacrificed, normally in exchange for perceived benefits and very often with specific dangers and losses, although this is a very strategic view of human relationships. Academics who are economists, evolutionary theorists, and research psychologists describe revealing privacy as a 'voluntary sacrifice', where sweepstakes or competitions are involved. In the business world, a person may give personal details (often for advertising purposes) in order to enter a gamble of winning a prize. Information which is voluntarily shared and is later stolen or misused can lead to identity theft.

The concept of privacy is most often associated with Western culture, English and North American in particular. According to some researchers, the concept of privacy sets Anglo-American culture apart even from other Western European cultures such as French or Italian. The concept is not universal and remained virtually unknown in some cultures until recent times. A word "privacy" is sometimes regarded as untranslatable by linguists. Many languages lack a specific word for "privacy". Such languages either use a complex description to translate the term (such as Russian combine meaning of уединение - solitude, секретность - secrecy, and частная жизнь - private life) or borrow English "privacy" (as Indonesian Privasi or Italian la privacy).

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively.

Sourced

• I am grateful that I have rights in the proverbial public square--but, as a practical matter, my most cherished rights are those that I possess in my bedroom and hospital room and death chamber.
  • Jacob M. Appel, biothicist, "A Culture of Liberty", July 21, 2009

• It is easy to let men alone when they do things our way. The test of a truly enlightened civilization is one that lets people alone, to pursue their own predilections, even when the majority of us prefer to live our lives very differently from theirs.
  • Jacob M. Appel, author and bioethicist, 2009. [1]

• We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.
  • William Orville Douglas, dissenting, Osborn v. United States, 385 U.S. 341 (1966)

• The saint and poet seek privacy to ends the most public and universal: and it is the secret of culture, to interest the man more in his public, than in his private quality.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Culture,” The Conduct of Life (1860)

• There is a sacred realm of privacy for every man and woman where he makes his choices and decisions—a realm of his own essential rights and liberties into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude.
  • Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, Look magazine (March 17, 1959)

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sat Jan 9 20:33:33 2010