The Hierarchical Structure and Ethical Dimension of Privacy

Due to the historic opportunity provided by the digital information society, the concept of privacy, which was slammed by feminists in the 1970s, has now become a research object that the ethical community has to deal with. Privacy, as the subjectivity symbol of the party concerned, constitutes the essential precondition of human freedom, belongs to the core value of human nature, and is an important component of human rights. As the heritage of human culture and social civilization, privacy has acquired the status of legal solidification in the international declaration of human rights, human rights conventions and the constitution of countries ruled by law. However, in general, ethical research has not been timely connected with this. The “ethical lag” on privacy issues will not only affect the healthy shaping of people’s awareness of privacy civilization, but also cause ambiguity in the understanding of the connotation of the concept of privacy in judicial practice and an overly broad interpretation space. This paper conducts a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the ethical dimension of privacy, takes the major distinction between the public and private spheres of modern society as a starting point to grasp the connotation of the concept of privacy, and proposes objective and subjective criteria for judging the content of privacy, and points out that in addition to dividing privacy into three categories: “space”, “information” and “decision” from the perspective of the field. We should also analyze the differences between the shallow and deep, relative and absolute contents of privacy from the perspective of degree, and especially explore the characteristics of absolute privacy and the rationale for obtaining the highest level of protection in the country. Finally, we should advocate a new type of “fundamental right to guarantee the credibility and integrity of information technology systems”, arguing that the implementation of this right and citizens’ trust in the state’s data processing behavior are important signs of the country’s real realization of personal information privacy protection in the digital society.