But 20 years hence most people will find that the privacy they take for granted today will be just as elusive as the privacy of the 1970s now seems. I have nothing to hide. But many others will be disturbed by the idea that most of their behaviour leaves a permanent and easily traceable record. People will have to start assuming that they simply have no privacy. This will constitute one of the greatest social changes of modern times.
Privacy is doomed for the same reason that it has been eroded so fast over the past two decades.
Presented with the prospect of its loss, many might prefer to eschew even the huge benefits that the new information economy promises. But they will not, in practice, be offered that choice. Privacy is a residual value, hard to define or protect in the abstract. The European Union's data protection directive, the most sweeping recent attempt, gives individuals unprecedented control over information about themselves. This could provide remedies against the most egregious intrusions.