"[A] distinction between information and autonomy rights generates different strengths in the claims of privacy which are made. The claim made by a person agreived in a system protecting a right of privacy focused upon information is “Mind your own business”, “Don't be so nosey” or somesuch. The claim from autonomy is of a different moral order altogether. It is “Do not interfere with my exercise of my liberty”. Surveillance of which the subject is aware is an inhibitor of action: but it is only an inhibitor, not a prohibitor. Again the argument is that by concentrating upon invasions of privacy which only indirectly impinge upon personal freedoms, the violation can be made to seem less serious."
January 1, 1970