ABSTRACT
After reviewing a proposed framework for balancing privacy and free speech, this chapter discusses some of its philosophical assumptions. The approach of balancing competing interests is central to utilitarianism but the balancing we need to undertake involves a weighing of considerations and not a calculation of net utility. Cases of unwanted attention present a different conflict of interests. But in balancing privacy against free speech interests we cannot ignore discussions of how we are to balance privacy against the need to fight crime. Free speech advocates may scream foul and complain of censorship. But a liberal society requires us to be sensitive to the aims of others. The utilitarian aims for policies that increase the overall happiness of society. A difficulty in applying the utilitarian theory concerns not the feasibility of making the calculation it requires, but rather a moral objection.
