On the Concept of Privacy: the Relation between Privacy and Intimacy

The right to privacy is at the heart of many contemporary public controversies. However, despite the vast philosophical and legal literature on the subject, we do not have a proper account of the meaning and value of privacy. This lack of agreement on conceptual and normative issues has led some author to talk about the 'chaos of privacy'. This article is focused on the conceptual exploration of privacy. First, I will consider how the right to privacy was first formulated in the classic article by Warren and Brandeis. Secondly, as in Spanish the right to privacy is regularly translated by 'derecho a la intimidad' it is crucial to analyze carefully the confused relation between intimacy and privacy. To this purpose I will discuss in the last two sections some explanations about how to draw the distinction between the two notions and how to understand their intrincate relation.