Justin - I wish I had thought of the show "Big Brother" for my original post! I agree that the Big Brother image still seems compelling notwithstanding the success and popularization of the show by the same name. But I still maintain that this very popularization weakens the cultural currency of the metaphor as useful tool for privacy. The ultimate message of this particular appropriation of the metaphor is that having Big Brother watch you -- or millions of viewers for that matter -- is not necessarily a bad thing. It might even be fun, even naughty, and, at worse, just boring and banal (Big Brother is all three, with an emphasis on banality). That latter sentiment seems pretty consistent with broader attitudes about informational privacy: so you lose a little privacy by giving away a bit of banal data. And maybe someone might see that banal data. Who cares?

Of course, cultural commentary is notoriously hard to prove -- and hard for you to disprove -- but I am not convinced that even if the image of Big Brother remains disturbing at a glance, reliance on the metaphor helps, rather than hurts, the cause. I think its more than just dilution of message; the metaphor itself covertly and actively promotes anti-privacy attitudes.

On the second point, I actually hope you and Andrei are right; that privacy can ultimately work with consumerism. Certainly, as you both point out, consumerism might promote privacy if people see privacy-promoting goods as something worthwhile pursuing and consuming. But I remain skeptical, at least until we fully face the difficulty of reconciliation. There seems to be a desire for privacy out there-- so why hasn't some smart capitalist figured out how to make money off of it? The answer might be that it is just so much easier making money by pursuing practices that erode privacy-- consumer data mining and surveillance to construct efficient marketing models and establish brand loyalty through feedback of consumer preferences. Sure, a few merchants might make some money off cameras or anonymizing software, but I cannot see this turning the tides in privacy's favor.

In any case, thanks for the links and note-- I've actually been meaning to fire a response to your great piece on social movements and copyright, so keep an eye out!

-- JonPenney - 26 Mar 2009