Privacy as a concept is becoming increasingly important in the digital world. People recognise it, but do they know what it is?

If web-services rely on advertising to survive, and targeted advertising is the holy grail of advertising – doesn’t it make sense that privacy as a right is defined? There needs to be an agreement between consumers, publishers, and advertisers of where the lines in the sand are. We can’t afford to have this concept hidden in the shadow – it’s too important.

For me, privacy is three things. The right to determine:

1) who can see information about you
2) when can people see information about you
3) what information they can see about you

As a whole concept –

“Privacy is an individual’s right to determine what information they would like others to know about themselves; which people are permitted know that information; and the ability to determine when those people can access that information”.

I would love it if someone can challenge that, or point me to something else, because I really would like to know.