Open 19 Beyond Privacy

Our traditional notion of privacy is coming under pressure from a political system obsessed with security and control and a commercial sector avid for sales. More and more measures are being taken that confl ict with our constitutional right to privacy. New technologies are being developed and implemented in order to keep an eye on citizens and collect data about their comings and goings. Societal resistance to this is relatively scarce, particularly in the Netherlands. At the same time people harbour fewer and fewer qualms about voluntarily revealing personal information in the media and on the Internet. Apparently the protection of privacy is subordinate to people’s desire to manifest themselves publicly in society. If the perception of privacy is changing then this raises questions about the extent to which the existing principle of privacy remains tenable and whether there are alternative subjectivities or rights that are considered more important. Are new strategies being introduced for the protection of personal autonomy or for the evasion of instruments that violate privacy? Beyond Privacy attempts to give an impression of the current sociopolitical and technological violators of privacy as well as of what is on the horizon beyond privacy.
With contributions by Rudi Laermans, Maurizio Lazzarato, Rob van Kranenburg, Martijn de Waal, Armin Medosch and others.