The Two Western Cultures of Privacy

"Privacy advocates often like to claim that all modern societies feel the same intuitive need to protect privacy. Yet it is clear that intuitive sensibilities about privacy differ from society to society, even as between the closely kindred societies of the United States and continental Europe.

In fact, we are in the midst of major legal conflicts between the countries on either side of the Atlantic--conflicts over questions like the protection of consumer data, the use of discovery in civil procedure, the public exposure of criminal offenders, and more.

The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity Versus Liberty

Clearly the idea that there are universal human sensibilities about privacy, which ought to serve as the basis of a universal law of privacy, cannot be right."

Yale Law Journal Online | The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity Versus Liberty | James Q. Whitman | via detrius