Kirsty Hughes, A Behavioural Understanding of Privacy and its Implications for Privacy Law

Kirsty Hughes, A Behavioural Understanding of Privacy and its Implications for Privacy Law

Comment by: Bruce Boyden

PLSC 2012

Workshop draft abstract:

This article draws upon social interaction theory to develop a theory of the right to privacy.  By drawing upon this literature and adopting a behavioural approach to privacy, we can better understand: how privacy is experienced; the different types of privacy that we experience; when an invasion of privacy occurs; and the social benefits of privacy.

In essence, this article claims that privacy plays a crucial role in facilitating social interaction and that an individual or group experiences privacy when he, she or they successfully employ barriers to obtain or maintain a state of privacy. Under this approach, an invasion of privacy occurs when those barriers are breached and the intruder obtains access to the privacy-seeker.  This article proposes a new theory of privacy, explaining how it differs from existing theories, and how it deals with a number of crucial complex problems, including, threats, attempts and cumulative interferences with privacy.  It reflects on the implications of this analysis for privacy law, in particular: the reasonable expectation of privacy test; the concept of waiver; and the balancing of competing rights and interests.