Ascribing Moral Status to Personal Information: Informational Privacy for Individuals of a Digital Age

Abstract

The aim of this master s thesis is to present an argument for basing the moral value of informational privacy on an informational concept of personhood. Conventional liberal accounts of privacy, basing the moral value of informational privacy solely on the value of autonomy, will be shown insufficient in providing adequate rights to informational privacy in a digital age. I argue that in order to ascribe moral status to personal information, and through this status, informational privacy rights to inviduals within the digital information environment, the moral value of informational privacy must be based on the direct value of personal information. That is, rights to informational privacy are to be based on the constitutive role of personal information in making up and sustaining the informational person.