The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance by Carissa Véliz, Oxford University Press – 256 pages
by Hector Garcia Morales
“Privacy matters because it shields us from possible abuses of power”. Such a strong statement opens the introduction of the book, setting the grounds for the following pages. The thesis is that, in digital societies, there is an excess of Surveillance and Privacy becomes an asset not valued enough.
This is the second book by Carissa Véliz, an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. Her research is mostly focused on Digital Ethics and Privacy. In her first book, “Privacy is Power”, Véliz argues that the current digital economy is corrupting the right to privacy of the population and provides practical actions to take back control of our personal data.
“The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance” is a more philosophy-focused book about a topic that should be a central debate in the 21st-century tech-centric society. The goal of the book is to define privacy in modern philosophical terms and to highlight the value of Privacy over Surveillance. And it does so in a convincing way.
In the first part of the book, Véliz argues that Privacy is a fundamental human right arising from a natural trait to safeguard properties. She challenges and refutes many definitions made to date and proposes a new definition based on a hybrid account of privacy. The value of Privacy is then confronted with the value of Surveillance. Véliz argues that, although a certain degree of Surveillance might be beneficial to bring protection and safety, it tends to dangerously impose over Privacy. Véliz also discusses the main actions citizens should take to protect not just their individual right to privacy but also the right to privacy of others. All the aspects discussed in the book are then framed in terms of our current digital era. Véliz argues that digitization is imposing an excess of Surveillance, thus violating the right to privacy of the population.
Personally, as a reader interested in both philosophy and technology, I find Véliz provides a well-balanced book. However, the easiness of the reading varies throughout the book. The first part reads more as an academic book on the philosophy of privacy. The language used in the first chapters makes the reading a bit more dense, and less philosophy-inclined readers might be tempted to skip them. The discussions of the second part of the book move away from fundamental philosophy, and the reading becomes more accessible to broader audiences in a classical non-fiction style, providing examples and concrete use cases.
The confrontation Véliz presents between the value provided by both Surveillance and Privacy is very compelling and useful for further discussion in several areas. The link of privacy with other fundamental rights such as autonomy, democracy, fairness, well-being, security, freedom, and creativity is very interesting and makes the reader realize that privacy permeates many aspects of our everyday lives.
The main criticism I might make is that, although I tend to align with the thesis defended and the arguments provided by Véliz are well justified, in some parts of the book I had the feeling that some counterarguments could be presented more extensively.
In general, this book is the most complete reference in the ethics of privacy and the data economy I have read to date. It is a stimulating reading and provides rich and grounded arguments that feed the Privacy vs. Surveillance debate. Protecting privacy is essential to having a good life as individuals, as well as to protecting our democratic societies.