It's important to realize that "privacy" actually means "control over how your personal information is presented and revealed". Because having a magazine photographer with a telephoto lens take a naked picture of you and post it on the web sends a different message than posting that picture yourself, which in turn sends a different message than mailing that picture directly to a younger member of the opposite sex. Even if the pixels are exactly the same.
This is about the important social meanings encoded in the way you present something: Steven Pinker on "indirect speech as a window onto social relationships":
It's important to realize that "privacy" actually means "control over how your personal information is presented and revealed". Because having a magazine photographer with a telephoto lens take a naked picture of you and post it on the web sends a different message than posting that picture yourself, which in turn sends a different message than mailing that picture directly to a younger member of the opposite sex. Even if the pixels are exactly the same.
This is about the important social meanings encoded in the way you present something: Steven Pinker on "indirect speech as a window onto social relationships":
http://fora.tv/2007/10/15/Steven_Pinker_Games_People_Play
It's a bit abstract and academic, but this is HN, right?