For Westin (1967), privacy operates at the individual, group, and organizational/
institutional levels. This is an early statement of the multiple levels often associated
with privacy (cf. Petronio 2002). Although Westin’s definition of privacy is often
cited, it is his privacy states and functions that have occasioned research.
The research supports (to varying degrees) and extends the states and functions;
it examines the relationships between the states and functions; it applies the states
and functions to specific contexts (see Margulis 2003b, pp. 413–415, for a summary
of this research).