In my presentation I will focus philosophically on the question how we should assess the importance of privacy within the current privacy debate. Recently there has been much attention to the different, far-reaching ways in which our privacy is being invaded. It is commonly referred to as a 'threat to our privacy'. However, this raises the question what exactly is being threatened – and many different claims are made in an attempt to address this, ranging from the importance of consumer control to political notions like freedom and democracy. There seems to be a lack of words to describe what is at stake, and a lack of consensus to defend it properly. This is highly problematic for both privacy activists and ordinary citizens.

I will focus on the following questions: what is privacy and how do we refer to it? Is privacy a “right”, a private or public “interest” or can we understand it as a new kind of currency (commodification of our personal data)? And what do these different notions mean for the way we perceive the 'threat'? Furthermore, I will compare the different notions of privacy and what these differences mean in the defense of our privacy. In other words: what could be a proper way to claim our right to privacy?