Privacy, Autonomy, and Self-Concept

TN our age of electronic surveillance, centralized * data banks, and computerized solicitation, the topic of privacy is eliciting a good deal of attention. But what exactly is the value of privacy, of freedom from surveillance or information-gathering? The view I shall argue for here is that privacy is a necessary condition for something of basic value? the development of an autonomous self. Autonomy requires a conception of self for which...