That’s the theory Tim Wu advocates in a 2019 New York Times article.
For him, privacy in the old days was the same as being rich.
Peasants, slaves and serfs shared their living space.
The norms of privacy only came about 300 years ago, with the emergence of the middle classes, and with the acquisition of wealth and private property.
Thus, privacy would not be a fundamental characteristic of the human being. Rather, it should be seen as contingent and not permanent.
It becomes important to understand where the money is, in order to recognize that nowadays the forces that create money are also those that want to abolish privacy.
A phrase coined by sociologist Shoshana Zuboff describes this appropriation of private data: “surveillance capitalism”.
However, the fate of humanity is not made. Ninety-two percent of Americans demand more rights and protection for their privacy. This remains a hope, to progress in the right direction, according to Tim Wu.
