The Right to Oblivion

Privacy and the Good Life

By: Lowry Pressly

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

We are able to configure privacy settings on our devices and social media platforms, but we know our efforts pale in comparison to the scale of surveillance capitalism and algorithmic manipulation. In our hyperconnected era, many have begun to wonder whether it is still possible to live a private life, or whether it is no longer worth fighting for.

The Right to Oblivion argues incisively and persuasively that we still can and should strive for privacy, though for different reasons than we might think. Recent years have seen heated debate in the realm of law and technology about why privacy matters, often focusing on how personal data breaches amount to violations of individual freedom. In a novel philosophical account, Pressly insists that privacy isn't simply a right to be protected but a tool for making life meaningful.

Privacy deepens our relationships with others as well as ourselves, reinforcing our capacities for agency, trust, play, self-discovery, and growth. Without privacy, the world would grow shallow, lonely, and inhospitable. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Hannah Arendt, Jorge Luis Borges, and a range of contemporary artists, Pressly shows why we all need a refuge from the world: not a place to hide, but a psychic space beyond the confines of a digital world in which the individual is treated as mere data.

©2024 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2025 Tantor Media

Extremely apt, important

This book very clearly expresses an important concept that's applicable to our day to day lives - and it's a perspective that I've never heard before. I feel at once sad that this is the case as well as endlessly grateful to the author for articulating this issue so clearly. Certainly, these principles underlay important legal frameworks like GDPR. But here the argument for privacy is elegantly laid out in a way to apply to every person. I would recommend to all.