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Volume 3 Number 25 September
16, 2005 |
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Secrecy, privacy, confidentiality –
Part III What type of right is privacy? "What type of right is privacy?" a reader wants to know. "Is it a claim right, or a liberty right?" The reader added – and rightly so – that he had been paying attention. I've written about this distinction before. For those who haven't been paying attention, some people who study rights classify them into main four groups: claim rights, liberty rights, powers and immunities. Claim rights are those that, as the name implies, give us a claim on something. If I borrow $5 from you and promise to pay it back next Tuesday, then you have a claim on $5 come next Tuesday – and I have a corresponding obligation to satisfy that claim. A liberty right means simply that I have the ability to do something, free from outside interference by another person. No one can prevent me from doing something and no one can force me to do it. To say, for example, that I have a right to go to the movies tonight means that – unless there is some overriding reason – I can choose whether or not to go to the movies. No one can prevent me from going and no one can force me to go. The distinction between claim rights and liberty rights is important because saying I have a right to go to the movies (a liberty right) doesn't create for anyone else an obligation to provide me with the means to go to the movies, nor does it create an obligation on the theater to show a particular movie. Because it's a liberty right, there is no claim involved. The only obligation other people have is not to interfere. Powers and immunities aren't something we talk about a lot, although we use them quite a bit. Very often, we confuse them with something else. Basically, a power means that we have the right to change our status concerning rights. So, you could forgive my $5 debt to you, which would erase your claim, as well as my obligation. An immunity means that no one can change that right for you or force you to do so. So, how does this help us out
with privacy? Actually, it's probably better to talk about it first in a
context many people can relate to: owning a car. We like to say that we have
a right to drive our car. In some places, such as When we say we have a right to own or drive an automobile, we're talking about a lot of different things. First, I can decide whether to own a car or not. That would be a liberty. Then, I can decide I want to buy a car. That might be a power, because it would change a lot of my other rights. Once I go to the dealership, pick out a car, and pay my money, then I have a claim on the car I purchased. The dealer has an obligation to give it to me. As long as I meet all the public safety requirements, I can drive my car -- or simply put it in my driveway and leave it there. That's a liberty. I can refuse to let someone else drive my car or I can lend it to them. A power. When I want it back, I can demand it. A claim. I can sell it, if I want. A power. And no one can make me sell it. An immunity. I could draw this out further, but I think you get the point. When I say I have a right to an automobile, I'm really talking about a whole constellation of different rights -- what someone else has called "clusters or rights," and to use the word "right" in regard to my automobile is just a shorthand way of saying there are a lot of moral considerations at work. It's not as clear-cut as it sounds. We find this shorthand and these clusters of rights at work in a lot of different areas, especially when dealing with abstract concepts like "privacy" or even "life." When discussing a "right to life," for example, so much depends on what we mean by the term "life." It's a multilayered concept, and the cluster of "rights" that surrounds it is so varied that any discussion that doesn't clarify all the terms up front is doomed to confusion and eventual failure. We don't have to look very far or very hard to see that. The same applies to privacy. There are many meanings of privacy. Two of the most important are informational privacy and no interference in our decision-making process. There are others. And, all of these meanings are surrounded by clusters of rights that apply at different times and in different ways. So, the reader's question was an apt one. Is privacy a claim or a liberty? The answer is "both," and more. However, if you listen to current political discussions about "privacy," you'd think that it was a simple, clearly defined term on which everyone agreed, and that we were talking about a simple, uncomplicated right. To say we have a "right to privacy" is a shorthand way of saying that there are clusters of rights surrounding a concept we call "privacy." This cluster contains rights, liberties, powers, and immunities. |
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© Copyright 2005 Carlton Vogt |