Do we need privacy in our society? I don't like being looked at every minute of the day by the state, watching every move that I make. If you live in the Europe, that's probably the standard mentality of your day. I will argue that we do and that we don't to varying degrees. Privacy allows us to have some time to ourselves, a time to be irrational, a time to be free. It lets us think and act like we want.

Privacy most certainly has a detrimental effect on democracy. It encourages laws to be broken, and it allows bad laws to remain on the books unquestioned. People sheltered in privacy can do whatever they want, because if the state doesn't find out a person won't get in trouble.

Let me argue the second point first, as it's the least obvious, yet the more interesting of the two. Let's say the state comes up with Law X, that prohibits the action of doing Y. The state legislature may think that Y is a horrible activity, that nobody should ever engage in, but in reality the opposite is true. People continue to do Y under the shield of privacy, and most of them don't get caught. That doesn't seem like a very equitable method of justice. How can it be right for one to get no punishment, and the other to get nailed? It's punishment by random selection.

If there was no privacy, and there was cameras on every street corner, every nook and cranny of every house, and the government was constantly monitoring you, there would be full equality for all people. Bad laws that are ignored previously ignored with privacy, would rapidly be in the public's face, and fear of violating them would lead to a massive repeal of bad laws.

Elimating privacy has a benifical effect on freedom. Making people accountable will lead to fewer rules and regulations to take away our freedom. Without privacy, people will be forced to be actively involved in government. Citizens and legislators can see the consquences almost instantly of bad policy as all violaters will be instantly punished. Bad policies hidden by lack of enforcement will be kept from smoldering away for weeks.

Privacy advocates have a much different perspective on the whole issue. They realize that cameras on every corner would lead people to get nailed for every little thing, nobody would be able to deviate at all from the letter of the law. It would be so intrusive to have the government always watching us, with no way to get away. Darn creepy, if you ask me. If this is the choice, then I choose privacy and inequality.

A system that provides privacy and unequality is better then a more equal system with some privacy. In such a system, some of us will win, and some will have to suffer. With privacy, our world will seem a lot less creepy and authoritarian, and we will all have a little space to ourselves.