An excellent ‘Keynote Controversy’ panel, filmed by WORLDwrite volunteers at the Battle of Ideas Festival 2023. It's official title is appropriately 'WHATSAPPENED TO PRIVACY?' but search engines may find that tricky!
From intimate selfies to leaking of personal messages, the digital age seems to relentlessly blur the boundaries between private and public. Not only are we encouraged to bare it all for social media, but the idea of private or secret communication is increasingly seen as a cover for all kinds of ‘online harms’.
But it is not just social media or new laws that seem to threaten privacy. Indeed, official bodies are subject to endless leaks, baring the details of this or that supposedly private meeting or conversation. But perhaps this is no bad thing: debate about crucial issues has been widely informed by the leak of previously private correspondence, such as the over 100,000 messages between former health secretary Matt Hancock and others at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, what is so valuable about privacy - and what is at risk if we lose too much of it? Should we welcome the tendency to make everything public, especially if it roots out backward attitudes or exposes those who misuse power? What’s the relationship between the public and private, and where does the balance lie?
The speakers on the panel are:
Josie Appleton: Director, civil liberties group, Manifesto Club; author, Officious: Rise of the Busybody State; writer, Notes on Freedom
David Davis: Member of parliament, Conservative Party
Dr Tiffany Jenkins: Writer and broadcaster; author, Strangers and Intimates (forthcoming) and Keeping Their Marbles
Tim Stanley: Columnist and leader writer, Daily Telegraph; author, Whatever Happened to Tradition? History, Belonging and the Future of the West
The chair is: Ella Whelan
co-convenor, Battle of Ideas festival; journalist; author, What Women Want
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