Can we still recover the right to be left alone?
Nature of privacy, monitoring, and the self
- One line of discussion: being recorded and categorized leaves an “immutable trail” that distorts how others and you see yourself, constraining future choices and identity.
- Pushback: categorization and imperfect perception are inherent to being human; there is no “unfiltered” self, so fear of being observed is seen as existential rather than technological.
- Counter‑pushback: even if perfect privacy is impossible, the scale and persistence of bureaucratic and digital categorization are historically new and worsening.
Surveillance, monetization, and power
- Many argue the core problem is incentives to collect data: advertising, profiling, and recommendation systems create strong commercial pressure to track everything.
- Some say “demonetizing” private information (or more broadly, disincentivizing its collection) is necessary; others note that state surveillance (intelligence, immigration, reproductive policing) is driven by power, not profit.
- Another view: power disparities are primary; monetization merely amplifies existing asymmetries.
- Some blame software culture itself: developers who embraced data collection for profit are seen as having normalized pervasive surveillance.
Spaces of solitude and the ‘right to roam’
- Commenters share experiences of being hassled by rangers deep in wilderness, needing permits simply to exist on public land; this feels like an assault on the desire to “be left alone.”
- Others defend permits as necessary to prevent overuse, protect ecosystems, and avoid tragedy-of-the-commons scenarios.
- Comparisons are made to European “right to roam” systems versus U.S. models of paid access, quotas, and heavy regulation.
Privacy vs. free speech and ‘right to knowledge’
- One thread: freedom of speech depends on private/anonymous speech; without it, dissenters face retaliation despite nominal legal protections.
- Another: restricting data collection limits others’ “right to know” or to observe and form knowledge, a very deep form of freedom.
- Replies stress that any law forbidding access to true facts is a serious tradeoff; the optimal boundary between privacy and knowledge is inherently unstable and contested.
Ideology, collectivism, and being left alone
- Debate over whether collectivist or left‑wing politics are inherently hostile to privacy: some see strong states as necessarily surveillance‑heavy, others reject that as a false linkage.
- A more general thread: any system that concentrates power to protect people’s solitude also attracts those who dislike leaving others alone, so the “right to be left alone” is itself politically fragile.