{"id":264892,"date":"2026-06-05T08:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/05\/private-but-no-equity-a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-privacy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:20:16","slug":"private-but-no-equity-a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/05\/private-but-no-equity-a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Private but no equity: A new book traces the history of privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Private but no equity: A new book traces the history of privacy<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/lifestyle\/art-culture\/private-but-no-equity-a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-privacy-101780662527693.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-05 08:28:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.hindustantimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2nd-century Rome, even toilets weren\u2019t private. Royalty and nobility sat side by side, on elaborately decorated commodes arranged in rows, to chat through their ablutions.<\/p>\n

(Adobe Stock; Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Solitude was sinister, the 16th-century German priest Martin Luther warned. \u201cFor the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privacy of thought, place, emotion is not a human instinct. In fact, it could be said to be quite unnatural, albeit unquestionably vital, says British writer and cultural historian Tiffany Jenkins.<\/p>\n

In her book, Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life, Jenkins traces this arc over centuries, to the status of coveted asset; a means for intimacy, self-discovery, freedom.<\/p>\n

It is a fragile social contract that only really emerged about 200 years ago (around the same time as the railways and photography). It is something we are still negotiating: parents and teens, individuals and employers, citizens and governments, users and apps.<\/p>\n

The key debates have been unchanged for centuries: who gets to decide what constitutes privacy, and how those are rules applied?<\/p>\n

LINE\u2009OF\u2009CONTROL<\/p>\n

Take a simple example. Jenkins, also presenter of a BBC Radio 4 show and a trustee of the British Museum, is often asked about her private life at public events. It is something that deeply frustrates her, she says.<\/p>\n

It is a tricky one, she admits. There are few absolutes in the \u201cdance between the public and the private spheres\u201d. Yet this is one of the most important binaries of modern civilisation.<\/p>\n

From it stem the reach of political power, the extents of intimacy and private relationships, freedom of choice, even the freedom (increasingly under threat) to simply opt out of the system.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, privacy is a right we now take for granted. Endangering it further.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople assume the protection of this right comes with money, or with things like corridors, curtains and front doors. It doesn\u2019t. It comes through political…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Private but no equity: A new book traces the history of privacy https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/lifestyle\/art-culture\/private-but-no-equity-a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-privacy-101780662527693.html Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/ht-img\/img\/2026\/06\/05\/550x309\/-Adobe-Stock--Shutterstock-_1780662525070.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264894,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892\/revisions\/264894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}