Abstract

Privacy provides us with control over intimate decisions, such as becoming a parent. These decisions are intimate because they derive their meaning and value from our love and liking. The privacy literature contains two differing arguments about the value of privacy. Privacy might be valuable because of consequentialist reasons – it promotes the creation of close relationships. There is also a deontological account of privacy's value – privacy is valuable because agents are free beings. I suggest that privacy is valuable because it acknowledges our respect for persons as autonomous beings with the capacity to love, care, and like.