Understanding Consumer Privacy: A Review and Future Directions

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2008  by D, Clinton Jr,  Saini, Amit

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At a broader social level, societies also have to address the balance between the need for privacy and participation. All societies require rules and the adherence to them by their members in order to function properly (Moore 1984; Shils 1966). In addition, societies also need to establish mechanisms to detect transgressions of their norms and rules and to punish these behaviors in order to maintain their proper functioning (Westin 1967). These detection mechanisms often take some form of surveillance in which societies monitor their citizens in order to make sure their behavior stays within the bounds of the society's rules (Flaherty 1989; Goffman 1961; Miller 1999). The degree to which societies balance privacy, participation, and surveillance depends on the broader historical culture and traditions from which each society derives (Flaherty 19677; Shils 1966; Westin 1967).

While privacy clearly is not a recent phenomenon, the rise of modern industrial society has had a definite impact on issues of privacy, participation, and surveillance. Both industrialization and urbanization altered peoples' personal and societal relations (Simmel 1950). While these historical factors and the complex societies in which they were embedded provided more opportunities for physical and psychological privacy (e.g., the anonymity of city life), they also required greater individual disclosure and government surveillance in order for these societies to function properly (Honigmann 1959; Merton 1957; Westin 1967). Technological advances, as well as the constant need for information from individuals to participate in modern societies (especially capitalistic and democratic societies), have led to practices in which societal surveillance (by both public and private entities) can overwhelm the delicate balance of privacy and participation necessary for proper individual development (Miller 1999).

Privacy States and Functions - Westin (1967) argues that privacy consists of four basic states: solitude, intimacy, anonymity, and reserve. Solitude is the condition of being physically separated from others and free from observation. Intimacy is the condition of existing as a small unit (e.g., the family) while maintaining seclusion from others outside the unit. Anonymity is the condition of being in public while still being free from identification and surveillance. Reserve is the condition in which a person has created psychological barriers to protect him/herself from unwanted intrusions. In addition, Westin (1967) describes four functions of privacy: personal autonomy, emotional release, self-evaluation, and limited/protected communication. First, privacy helps to secure personal autonomy by allowing individuals to take control of and responsibility for their lives (Shils 1959). Second, privacy provides the individual with a space for emotional release from the pressures of performing daily roles and conforming to social norms (Goffman 1959). Third, privacy gives individuals time to integrate their life experiences and craft their identities through self-evaluation (Jourard 1966). Fourth, privacy allows limited communications in which people can set boundaries in interpersonal situations and protected communication in which the person can share confidences and establish trust (Simmel 1950).