Intentional Privacy

Meme

The term Intentional Privacy doesn’t trace back to a single inventor in the way “blind signatures” trace to David Chaum. Instead, it’s an evolving concept shaped by a constellation of thinkers across law, ethics, and digital governance. But here’s how its intellectual lineage unfolds:

Context

Foundational Thinkers

• Alan Westin** (1967): Often considered the father of modern privacy theory, in his book *Privacy and Freedom* introduced the idea that privacy is the ability to control information about oneself—a precursor to intentionality.
• Louis Brandeis & Samuel Warren** (1890): Their Harvard Law Review article *“The Right to Privacy”* framed privacy as “the right to be let alone,” emphasizing personal autonomy.
• Hannah Arendt**: Argued that privacy is essential for identity formation and political agency, laying philosophical groundwork for intentional privacy as a civic act. Arendt’s Core Ideas on Privacy
  • The Private Realm: In The Human Condition (1958), Arendt distinguishes between the private and public spheres. The private is where individuals cultivate identity, intimacy, and reflection—free from external judgment.
  • Political Agency: True political action, for Arendt, requires a stable self. Privacy protects the conditions for that self to emerge.
  • Against Total Transparency: She warned that collapsing the boundary between public and private leads to conformity and the erosion of individuality.

Contemporary Evolution

• Syrenis and other data ethics firms have recently popularized the term *intentional privacy* in the context of purpose-driven data collection and ethical consent models.
• Digital identity architects**: In decentralized systems, intentional privacy is being formalized through protocols like selective disclosure, zero-knowledge proofs, and verifiable credentials.

The work on Intentional Theory and civic-duty protocols, tell us we are not just studying intentional privacy but helping define its next chapter. Exploring how privacy becomes a deliberate act of agency, not just a passive right.

Obfuscation

Manipulating personal or confidential data to avoid disclosure. In AI this is known as Poisoning the Knowledge Base.