[tremon]

Also, let's not forget privacy as we know it is a distinctly modern idea.

Well, yes. But that's not because the phenomenon is new, but because detailed personal logging is new. Privacy used to be a natural right: no one could possibly know what you did last summer unless you told them or they were there with you. It only started to be an issue when we started following people around and preserving that data.

[ddebernardy]

It was an issue long before that, hence the laws related to it.

Privacy never was a "natural" thing until the 19th century. Sex in private yes, there's plenty of evidence for that. But that's about it.

By the end of the 19th century, it became an issue - indeed a right - owing to people preserving data around because cameras became a thing.

And as pointed out in my post, the main novelty today is the ubiquitous access by _everyone_ - it's no longer local to your immediate circle of contacts, it's basically publicly available information.