Privacy, Regulations, and Cybersecurity

CHAPTER 2A (Very) Brief History of Privacy

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

—William O. Douglas

(Dissenting opinion, Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak [1952])

Having a grasp on the concept of privacy is useful, but it's not enough for our purposes. We will soon have to confront regulations governing privacy that directly impact the way we do business. It is paramount that we understand not only privacy as a concept but privacy in context.

In other words, how did we get here?

Since time immemorial, all cultures, all over the world, have had some understanding of privacy as a concept. Some codified it into laws, while others integrated it with religious beliefs. There is substantial scholarship on the subject, and you'll find selected entries in the bibliography to kick off your in-depth review. For our purposes here, a few snippets will suffice to give as a sense of history and scope.

The ancient Greeks, borrowing from the Egyptians, venerated the God of Silence and Secrets, Harpokrates. He is usually pictured as a mischievous little boy with his finger to his lips as if he is saying “Shhh!” (You've got to start somewhere, I guess!) But the Greeks, being geometry savvy, didn't just include a secretive god in their pantheon. They also designed their living spaces by placing what we would consider window openings in such a way that it would limit the view of an outside observer peering in.

The ancient Chinese, meanwhile, had—and still have—a ...