Comprehending privacy in hindsight

"In this paper, I will focus on reinvigorating a sense of what privacy is, tracing its cultural significance from an interdisciplinary perspective, culminating in a renewed definition of privacy in the digital age. I will add a brief examination of the Canadian legal context to ground what is predominantly a theoretical exploration. This paper is not primarily concerned with the actual scope of the loss of privacy, although it is based on the assumption that recent online developments are harbingers of the near total erosion of privacy. The premise of this paper is the curious paradox of living in a society that had had, until September 11, 2001, unprecedented levels of privacy protection, while at the same time undergoing rapid devaluation of privacy rights, seemingly voluntarily sacrificed by citizens/ consumers in aid of market advantages through globalized networks.l"--From the introduction page 2.