Governing Through Privacy: Authoritarian Liberalism, Law, and Privacy Knowledge

Abstract

In this article, we examine the production of privacy knowledge and uses of privacy law in relation to liberal governmentality. Understanding liberal governmentality remains critical insofar as authoritarian practices and liberalism are intertwined. We argue the birth of privacy studies and the rise of the notion of ‘privacy by design’ demonstrate a coupling of security and privacy and the embedding of privacy protocol in surveillance technologies consistent with authoritarian liberalism. We illustrate these arguments through analysis of cases pertaining to public camera surveillance and access to information processes (ATIP) in Canada. The growing prevalence of privacy as an object of knowledge and as a means of governance raise questions about its utility as a remedy for surveillance and begins to reveal how authoritarian practices are incorporated within liberalism.