[class4behavior]

Privacy is not about secrets.

Privacy is the right to sovereignty over one's personal/intimate sphere - whether it's insight to information about oneself or physical contact. The right to consent, for instance, would be a component of the right to privacy.

It's about power. And by extension it's about the power balance between the people and any intruder of their private sphere, whether it's a friend, a stranger, the public, the state, the law and so on.

In other words, the less privacy there is the less effective power both the individual as well as the entire people have.

That's why it's a basic human right.

[trod123]

On a side note, it is also a critical dependency to safeguard that right in the first place.

A right to history and culture is also another dependency since people are functions of the culture they learn from their parents. The burning of books which destroys culture is universally accepted to be a bad thing, but its still done indirectly today (libraries budget is dependent on circulation metrics, classics may not be checked out often, books not circulated well get donated to third-parties who pulp, or resell and then pulp if not sold within a period of time.

Even Goodwill does this for content they deem is unsuitable, which is a value-based decision from some unstated individual.