Privacy Deceptions

Abstract

Abstract To plot a comprehensive map of privacy, it is not enough to consider privacy, the right to privacy, and privacy duties. We also have to take into account perceptions of privacy and their manipulation. There are times when people think they are being surveilled when in fact they enjoy privacy. And there are times when people think they have privacy but in fact are being surveilled. Sometimes these misperceptions happen unintentionally, as when a person is unaware, say, about her employer’s surveillance rules, even if the rules are prominently displayed, or when someone thinks a person is gazing at her, when in fact the person is blind. Many times, however, people intentionally manipulate others’ perceptions of privacy. When someone succeeds in manipulating a person’s perception of privacy so that she believes she has privacy when in fact she does not, it is a case of deceptive privacy. If she is made to believe she does not have privacy when in fact she does, it is a case of deceptive surveillance. These cases are notoriously absent from the literature on privacy, but they can be as morally significant as violations of the right to privacy. This chapter offers an ethical analysis of these kinds of cases.