Privacy in the youtube era: Evolving concepts in the protection of personal information

Justice Louis Brandeis' concept of privacy in the early 20th century was, the right to be left alone. Yet in the era of YouTube, social networking, and reality TV, it is increasingly common for individuals to seek widespread exposure of their ideas, images, and selves to the broadest possible audience. At the same time, however, the theft and misuse of personal information continues to grow as more and more businesses and governments make their data accessible over the Internet. We are witnessing, in effect, a privacy paradox in which a hunger for greater exposure is opposed by a growing danger of exposure. Resolution of this paradox lies in using a historical perspective on security and privacy to clarify, segregate, and reorder the component concepts underlying these two terms. This paper attempts to begin that task, in part through unloading the overloaded concept of privacy.