2024 Shearman Lectures - Niko Kolodny - Privacy and its Violation (pt 1)

Lecture 1: A Search for Interests. This first lecture asks what interests of yours are set back by my violations of your privacy. It canvasses answers that come readily to mind, as well as answers that have been put forward in the literature. It is said that my violations of your privacy, among other things, expose you to mistreatment, lead to feelings of shame, compromise your autonomy, burden you with responsibilities, thwart your attempts at intimacy, and undermine your self-presentation. However, the lecture argues, these interests, even taken together, are inadequate to justify the intuitive duties of privacy. It is unclear how some of these interests are set back by violations of privacy. It is unclear how some of these interests could justify a duty of privacy, given that they do not justify other duties. And there are intuitive violations of privacy that don’t risk setting back any of these interests.