Voluntary Limitation of the Right to Privacy from the Criminal Law, Psychology and Sociology Point of View

Abstract

The right to privacy is a very important human right. The term is not well defined. The two essential factors creating the sense of privacy seem to be the control of information flow concerning oneself and freedom to decide about one's life. Legal protection of right to privacy is different as far as different levels are concerned: horizontal (citizen − citizen) or vertical (state − citizen). The right to privacy is undoubtedly better-protected on the horizontal level. On the vertical level some violation is justified by public interest, mostly − by safety reasons. As far as an individual's consciousness is concerned, one can point out at the internal sense of privacy (the need not to reveal information on oneself) and the external sense of privacy (an individual's behavior connected with displaying private information publicly). One's belief as to what one's private sphere involves, both in relation to the subject of information (who the information concerns) and in relation to the object of information (what the information concerns), is influenced by different factors. Two tendencies can be observed in privacy − related behaviors nowadays: on one hand selling or giving one's privacy away and on the other hand its strong protection. Voluntary resignation from the right to privacy is not irreversible, but harms made this way usually stay long.