ABSTRACT
What are the basic concepts, notions and functions of identity, identification and privacy, and how are they interrelated? This chapter provides answers and explains this socio-technical interplay step by step: the general roles and characteristics of identity and identification are presented, including the connecting function inherent to identification. This is followed by a presentation of the core function of privacy, i.e., to control and regulate the boundary between the private and the public spheres. The interplay of both core functions is then discussed in-depth. This includes a presentation of issues essential for privacy protection, i.e., anonymity, pseudonymity and identifiability. It is shown that privacy enables autonomy, freedom and identity-building; this triad is essentially linked to the concept of informational self-determination. Finally, the chapter examines and discusses central controversies in the privacy discourse, particularly between privacy and notions of security and transparency. The assumed trade-off between privacy and security, inherent to security policy and driven by securitization, is deconstructed and critically discussed. Then, notions of post-privacy including the different meanings and functions of transparency are investigated. As shown, neither security nor transparency is inevitably opposed to privacy. But misconceptions of their interplay complicate privacy protection.
