Treating sensitive topics online: a privacy dilemma

Ethics and Information Technology 20 (4):303-313 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper aims to provide new insights to debates on group privacy, which can be seen as part of a social turn in privacy scholarship. Research is increasingly showing that the classic individualistic understanding of privacy is insufficient to capture new problems in algorithmic and online contexts. An understanding of privacy as an “interpersonal boundary-control process” (Altman, The environment and social behavior, Brooks and Cole, Monterey, 1975) framing privacy as a social practice necessary to sustain intimate relationships is gaining ground. In this debate, my research is focused on what I refer to as “self-determined groups” which can be defined as groups whose members consciously and willingly perceive themselves as being part of a communicative network. While much attention is given to new forms of algorithmically generated groups, current research on group privacy fails to account for the ways in which self-determined groups are affected by changes brought about by new information technologies. In an explorative case study on self-organized therapy groups, I show how these groups have developed their own approach to privacy protection, functioning on the basis of social practices followed by all participants. This informal approach was effective in pre-digital times, but online, privacy threats have reached a new level extending beyond the scope of a group’s influence. I therefore argue that self-determined sensitive topic groups are left facing what I present as a dilemma: a tension between the seemingly irreconcilable need for connectivity and a low threshold, on the one hand, and the need for privacy and trust, on the other. In light of this dilemma, I argue that we need new sorts of political solutions.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Online privacy as a corporate social responsibility: an empirical study.Irene Pollach - 2011 - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 20 (1):88-102.
19 Privacy and/in the Public Sphere.Beate Roessler - 2016 - Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy 2016 (1):243-256.
Social web and identity: a likely encounter. [REVIEW]Thierry Nabeth - 2009 - Identity in the Information Society 2 (1):1-5.
The moral value of informational privacy in cyberspace.Diane P. Michelfelder - 2001 - Ethics and Information Technology 3 (2):129-135.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-09-26

Downloads
36 (#385,000)

6 months
7 (#175,814)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

Why privacy is important.James Rachels - 1975 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 4 (4):323-333.
Integrity and Disrespect.Axel Honneth - 1992 - Political Theory 20 (2):187-201.

View all 22 references / Add more references