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

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Privacy is one of the most contested concepts of our time. This book sets out a rigorous and comprehensive framework for understanding debates about privacy and our rights to it.

Much of the conflict around privacy comes from a failure to recognise divergent perspectives. Some people argue about human rights, some about social conventions, others about individual preferences and still others about information and data processing. As a result, 'privacy' has become the focus of competing definitions, leading some to denounce the 'disarray' in the field.

But as this book shows, disagreements about the role and value of privacy obscure a large amount of agreement on the topic. Privacy is not a technical term of law, cybersecurity or sociology, but a word in common use that adequately expresses a few simple and related ideas.

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