Privacy

The word privacy stems from the Latin root privare, which means “to separate.” To want privacy is to want to be separate, to be by oneself, and to be left alone. [Page 347]In the United States, the establishment of privacy as a right originated from a 1928 Supreme Court opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis, in which the right to be left alone was said to be one of “the most comprehensive of rights and the right most cherished by civilized men.” Conceptually, privacy is an individual human right that prevents others from intruding, appropriating, and disclosing information of a private and personal nature. A person has the right to determine when, how, and to what extent information about his or her personal life may be ...