From the Editors: The Illusion of Privacy and Competition for Attention

In this space in the previous issue, my esteemed colleague and Co-Editor discussed the ‘‘right to be let alone.’’ In the interests of helping to foster a general debate on the general issue of privacy—a debate in which we hope this Journal will take a leading role—I would like to offer some of my own views on the subject. I would like to argue that the entire issue of privacy, while it is certain to occupy a good deal of national attention in coming years has been dramatically overblown and will ultimately prove to be of far less importance than most observers now fear. As is often the case, the emergence of new communications media render visible what had previously been invisible, exposing to full view what had been hidden and taken for granted, often making people wish for something that has been rendered obsolete. Thus, it is not surprising that as we move into the wired, interactive age— as we begin to embrace the notion of electronic or virtual communities— there should be an upsurge of interest in, indeed almost a nostalgia for, the notion of privacy. Unfortunately, however inconvenient it may be for our concept of how the world should work, we may be mourning the loss of something we never really had much of in the first place. For, in the final analysis, one needs to ask: how important—really—has privacy been in the lives of most people?