The Seven Veils of Privacy: How Our Debates About Privacy Conceal its Nature

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The seven veils of privacy sets out a rigorous and comprehensive framework for understanding debates about privacy and our rights to it. Seven related but separate discourses are distinguished, and the privacy literature is reviewed from several disciplines, including law, computer science/artificial intelligence (AI), ethics, sociology, political philosophy, psychology and history. The result is a view of privacy that takes in not only our current privacy wars with social media and big data, but also privacys role in different cultures and through history.

Reviews

An impressively thorough and systematic but always accessible analysis. O'Hara sorts and sifts the different claims for what is and what is not privacy. O Privacy, what crimes are committed in thy name! But O'Hara! What fun you've had finding a way through the muddles and misunderstandings to establish a common language for discussing privacy. I wish I'd had access to Kieron O'Hara's excellent survey when I started out as UK Information Commissioner back in 2009. O'Hara's razor should help us to approach debates around public policy on their own merits, avoiding using privacy as a mere label either to support or oppose particular causes or proposals.
Christopher Graham, UK Information Commissioner, 200916

OHara gives us a refreshingly provocative, learned, distinctive and lively book about privacy that will stimulate important debates. The vast, unwieldy body of privacy scholarship is seen through new lenses, bringing seven different levels of privacy discourse into focus. Each one veils the meaning of privacy, but all contribute to a new framework that helps to make sense of the supposed chaos of this subject. Illustrative discussions of seven important privacy topics and debates are related to the sevenfold framework. OHaras examples and personal style keep the reader in mind along the intricate trail of de (or re)constructive analysis, and a fascinating conclusion affords important insights into privacy by refracting the analysis through the COVID-19 pandemic experience.
Charles Raab, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh

How should we talk about privacy Before you answer that question, read this book. The seven veils of privacy is deep and erudite, yet accessible and even humorous. OHara takes us on a deeply researched and compelling journey through the points of disagreement in our privacy discourse. This book helps us understand why we keep talking past each other and how to have a more productive conversation about one of the most critical values of our time.
Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law, Boston University and author of Privacys Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies

Author Bio

Kieron OHara is an Emeritus Fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton