Privacy schmivacy

There were two interesting posts about privacy today on Slashdot.

The following quote is from the article Definition Changes for People’s Privacy in the Guardian quoting Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Those two generations younger than we are have a very different idea of what is essential privacy, what they would wish to protect about their lives and affairs.

I think that statement is a pretty good research question rather than a statement of fact. I haven’t seen any research on this particular point. I think the issue is finding out whether young people have always had a different attitude about privacy than their elders (I think Sennett addresses this in The Fall of Public Man) or if today’s young people are actually different – and, more importantly, why? It’s easy to see how one might become fatalistic about privacy with projects like this location tracking system that can be put together ad-hoc.