Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Crease, Robert | Mendieta, Eduardo | Khader, Serene | Ihde, Don | Hesford, Victoria.
Date
2015-05-01
Keywords
Agency, Identity, Information, Privacy, Social Self-Authorship, Technology | Philosophy
Department
Department of Philosophy.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76609
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
The dominant approach in privacy theory defines information privacy as individual control over personal information. Against this view, I argue that the idea of controlling personal information is both incoherent and impracticable. That is because personal information is indistinguishable from non-personal information, and information (of any kind) is nearly impossible to control. Instead of understanding information privacy exclusively in terms of information control, I argue that we ought to think more broadly about the ways people use information to shape how others perceive and understand who they are—what I call " social self-authorship.†In addition to trying to control which particular pieces of information about us other people have, we work to contextualize and guide the interpretation of that information. I argue that our capacity to do that is central to our ability to draw interpersonal boundaries, and that our ability to draw such boundaries is a necessary condition for social and political agency. In order to protect information privacy in the Information Age, we therefore have to respect what I call norms of “hermeneutic privacy.†I articulate those norms, and I discuss how they might be realized in technology design, technology education, and technology law. | 179 pages
Recommended Citation
Susser, Daniel, "Hermeneutic Privacy: On Identity, Agency, and Information" (2015). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2499.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2499