At a basic level, most people already understand why privacy matters. You wouldn’t show your bank account to anyone who asks. You wouldn’t hand over your entire financial history just to participate in everyday life. This intuition is almost universal. At the same time, we also accept that privacy isn’t absolute. Government employee salaries are public. Nonprofit tax returns are public. Certain kinds of transparency are healthy, even necessary. So privacy isn’t a binary. It’s contextual. The ...

At a basic level, most people already understand why privacy matters. You wouldn’t show your bank account to anyone who asks. You wouldn’t hand over your entire financial history just to participate in everyday life. This intuition is almost universal. At the same time, we also accept that privacy isn’t absolute. Government employee salaries are public. Nonprofit tax returns are public. Certain kinds of transparency are healthy, even necessary. So privacy isn’t a binary. It’s contextual. The ...