Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
Legal and policy debates about privacy revolve around conflicts between privacy and other goods. But privacy also conflicts with itself. Whenever securing privacy on one margin compromises privacy on another margin, a privacy-privacy tradeoff arises.
This Essay introduces the phenomenon of privacy-privacy tradeoffs, with particular attention to their role in NSA surveillance. After explaining why these tradeoffs are pervasive in modern society and developing a typology, the Essay shows that many of the arguments made by the NSA's defenders appeal not only to a national-security need but also to a privacy-privacy tradeoff. An appreciation of these tradeoffs, the Essay contends, illuminates the structure and the stakes of debates over surveillance law specifically and privacy policy generally.
Disciplines
Law | National Security Law | Privacy Law
Recommended Citation
David E. Pozen,
Privacy-Privacy Tradeoffs,
83
U. Chi. L. Rev.
221
(2016).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/768