'Privacy and Speech'

We often disclose ourselves to the world at large, or at least we act as if indifferent to the world’s eyes. But at other times, most of us try to control the disclosure of certain matters about ourselves. Sometimes we share thoughts, feelings, information, personality, or bodily appearance with no one at all. More commonly, we share these things with a limited number of other people. Privacy in this sense-the ability to control and to avoid the disclosure of certain matters about oneself-is a widely recognized value, an important precondition for human flourishing.