The Privacy Observation Window

The Privacy Observation Window categorises the forms of observation, identification and attribution UK citizens have historically accepted from government and business, what capabilities are now becoming normalised, and what still sits outside today’s social contract. Unlike the Overton Window (acceptable opinion), the Privacy Observation Window measures acceptable observability. Where acceptable means the movement from novel to ubiquity. Like the Overton Window, normalised does not mean universally welcomed. Many privacy advocates feel negatively about recent changes to enforce ID verification for certain websites and the children’s ban on social media. The window measures what society has stopped resisting, not what it has chosen. By the time society debates whether a capability should exist, it is often already debating how it should be regulated rather than whether it belongs in the window at all. Positioning Every society accepts some degree of observation as technology evolves,…