ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses autonomy and selective disclosure as moral norms, raising some questions about the content and moral rationale of each, as well as questions about their relationship. It addresses exclusively to the moral nature and status of the norms under consideration, leaving questions of legal and political theory to those who are qualified to deal with them. Some acts and practices which have long been held to be violations of privacy appear to be morally objectionable principally as violations of autonomy. The entire subject of acts of commission or omission that cause or permit deterioration of the environment has been represented on occasion as a violation of privacy. Although some contemporary usage brands as “violations of privacy” acts and practices which violate only the more general norm of respect for autonomy, clarity of thought would be promoted if one restricted the concept of privacy-violating conduct to violations of the right of selective disclosure.
