Privacy,Confidentiality,and Genetic Information: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Developing an understanding of the social importance of privacy is critical not just in gaining philosophical clarity about privacy but also because our emphasis on privacy as an individual right has largely offered a weak basis for formulating policy to protect privacy. In policy debates about the marketing of consumer information, the surveillance of criminal suspects, and the testing of job applicants, the primary policy question does not involve what type of individual we want but what type of society we want, including concerns about the relationships between individuals and social/political/economic organizations and the powers these organizations have. If these social goals are the relevant policy goals, an understanding of privacy's importance to society is likewise relevant.