Relational Privacy and the Networked Governance of the Self

The self today is networked, and governed through networks. This paper examines the four functions of privacy as set out by privacy theorist Alan Westin (1967) and works to construct a revised view of the functions of privacy in a networked world by drawing on feminist theories of relationality. Many basic ideas about privacy, drawn from the Western liberal tradition, have been challenged, redrawn, and re-conceptualized by feminist philosophers of relationality. In section one, this paper defines the “networked governance of the self” and outlines the feminist relational approach, drawing the concepts of networked governance and relationality together. In section two, the paper elaborates a relational perspective on networked privacy, set up against Westin’s traditional formulation of the roles that privacy plays in democratic society. According to Westin, privacy 1) provides a realm of personal autonomy; 2) creates opportunities for emotional release; 3) permits a zone of self-evaluation; and 4) permits limited and protected forms of communication. The paper elaborates a relational perspective on the functions of privacy, emphasizing the importance of relational privacy to the networked governance of the self.