On the Right to Obscurity

‍Tragically, U.S. privacy law has neglected to address a significant dimension of privacy. While lawmakers and judges have routinely recognized intrusions into our secluded spaces and breaches of our confidentiality and secrecy, they have largely failed to protect our most common yet also our most underappreciated form of privacy: the practical obscurity that allows us to live freely and with dignity. Obscurity, which is the state of protection that arises when personal information is difficult for some people to obtain or correctly interpret, serves several vital interests: (1) it safeguards our ability to express ourselves without fear that everything we say could be used against us; (2) it enables us to participate in key democratic processes like protesting without the government recording our opposition in a database; and (3) it allows us to form intimate relationships where we selectively share what is on our minds and in our hearts. Ultimately, obscurity provides the “breathing room” we need pursue self-development or establish healthy boundaries with others.