Privacy and the Media by Andrew McStay

Author:Andrew McStay [McStay, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Language Arts & Disciplines, Communication Studies, Criminology
ISBN: 9781526413321
Google: q2ECDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2017-03-20T03:37:40+00:00

Forced Openness

This issue has arisen in privacy studies. Richard Posner, a privacy and law scholar details this problem. He controversially argues that allowing people privacy is not defensible because people use privacy to conceal and selectively disclose information. Whereas academics that study privacy mostly agree that privacy is positive overall and has to do with autonomy, control over self-presentation, and the management and sharing of information, Posner takes privacy to task for precisely this reason. For Posner privacy is very much connected to the negative ideas of withholding and concealing, particularly in regard to personal uses of information. He argues that by attempting to manipulate the flow of information, this is tantamount to a wish to control others’ perceptions. He says: ‘It is no answer that people have “the right to be let alone,” for few people want to be let alone. Rather, they want to manipulate the world around them by selective disclosure of facts about themselves’ (1983: 234).

Posner’s point is that if we want the world to be better and more accepting, we should tend towards openness and removal of barriers that impede the flow of information. His examples include full disclosure of early dealings with the law, but also sexuality and minor mental illnesses. Although these might cause irrational reactions by employers, Posner argues that it is wrong to withhold such information from public view. He argues that if informational transparency were the norm, in time irrational prejudices would be removed from society. When we consider the earlier statistic that 10.5 million of the UK’s 64.1 million have a criminal record, one can see his point. There is an appeal to this argument. After all, who would not want to reduce prejudice? The problem is that this requires forced openness. This would create social risks for stigmatised groups and, essentially, calls for risk and a significant sacrifice by them to enlighten the rest of us. Further, although openness can generally be said to be a good principle, it is not clear what practical net positive results would be gained by forced openness.

Real world cases have a habit of complicating philosophical principles such as transparency and openness. Consider the following case study about a woman called Sonia. This was presented by Chris Stacey, co-director of Unlock, at a conference I attended in 2015, although it is also available on Unlock’s website.10

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