Why Privacy Is Like Bubble Wrap
We need to rethink what privacy means, and what we want it to mean.
Today is Data Privacy Day, a great time to remember that we live our lives increasingly in visible, recorded ways, and that privacy is something that belongs to all of us and to each of us. Also, it’s a day when privacy professionals post jargon-filled memes that no one understands. “Did you hear the one about the Article 49 derogation?”
Words Have Meaning(s)
Thinking about privacy is almost always an invitation to think about what the word actually means. One of the things that lawyers have to learn very early is how to parse language. Whether it’s reviewing a legal decision, drafting a contract, or deciphering a complicated statute, words are the life of lawyers, and the law. They say that law school isn’t about learning to be a lawyer, it’s about learning to think like a lawyer, and that’s true — but what that actually means is learning how to understand language in the way that lawyers do. Ask anyone who’s ever met a first year law student home on break what it’s like to discuss literally anything, and you’ll know what I mean.
