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Privacy and perfect voyeurism

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Abstract

I argue that there is nothing wrong with perfect voyeurism, covert watching or listening that is neither discovered nor publicized. After a brief discussion of privacy I present attempts from Stanley Benn, Daniel Nathan, and James Moor to show that the act is wrong. I argue that these authors fail to make their case. However, I maintain that, if detected or publicized, voyeurism can do grave harm and to that extent should be severely punished. I conclude with some thoughts on the stubborn intuition that perfect voyeurism is wrong despite the absence of harm.

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Correspondence to Tony Doyle.

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Doyle, T. Privacy and perfect voyeurism. Ethics Inf Technol 11, 181–189 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-009-9195-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-009-9195-9

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