The privacy question, in its present form, is an urban problem of modernity.
Individuals living in rural communities were preoccupied with privacy, but in ways
and for reasons different from ours. In a world where communal practices were
emphasized, the desire to be private was frequently associated with the need to hide,
and gossip was perceived as a means of expressing solidarity (Norris 2001).
Modern and urban life charged individuals with the responsibility of managing
their sociality, and their privacy, in unknown and urban territory. Urban
environments present a certain measure of distance (Simmel 1971), which might
suggest autonomy in defining private boundaries, but with autonomy comes responsibility
to delineate and protect private boundaries. Yet, individuals maintain social
relationships in both urban and agrarian settings, and in doing so, they gradually
confide private information to attain personal closeness with valued others. An
optimal balance between disclosure and privacy can be beneficial for the
individual’s personal approach to sociality. Problems arise when an individual’s
right to make decisions about their own path to privacy, sociality, and publicity is
compromised.