[MereInterest]

> Similarly with my room, you can hide everything that would breach your privacy before the exam starts.

The need to hide things is itself an effect of privacy having been breached. Privacy isn't just to keep information secret, but also to provide a space in which you can be comfortable because it is your own space. Needing to hide things away is a reaction to privacy being breached, not a way to preserve privacy.

[mvanaltvorst]

I do not understand how hiding private items from the camera breaches your privacy. That is like saying you have already died of thirst because you have to drink water; the preventive measure does not cause the thing it tries to prevent.

Furthermore, you do not have to take the exam in your own room. Any quiet room where there are no other people is theoretically fine. Having access to such a room is your own responsibility, just like having access to a laptop to do your study is your own responsibility. In practice, hiding private items in your study room is usually the most practical way to get access to a comfortable room, but I do not believe requiring students to have access to a private room for 2 hours breaches their privacy.

[MereInterest]

> I do not understand how hiding private items from the camera breaches your privacy. That is like saying you have already died of thirst because you have to drink water; the preventive measure does not cause the thing it tries to prevent.

I think I see the difference here. You're seeing "privacy" in terms of information being leaked. So long as no information is revealed, then no privacy has been lost. The information security is key. Is that an accurate way of describing your views?

For me, "privacy" is a state in which effort does not need to be expended to maintain information security. The cost is not the personal information being leaked, but rather the effort needed in order to prevent information from being leaked. Of knowing that your sanctuary has been violated, that your comfortable place has been exposed to others. And sure, you may try to minimize other effects of that breach of privacy by hiding away aspects of yourself, but that is a response to an invasion that has already occurred.

To use your analogy, suppose I'm going on a trip through the desert. I know that water may not be readily available, so I take several gallons of water with me. On the other hand, if I'm going to a restaurant, I can assume that water will be available and do not pack my own. In neither case have I died of thirst, but in one case I have needed to spend additional effort to ensure that was the case. If I hide things away from the camera, I haven't had information leaks (died of thirst), but I have needed to take extra precautions (carrying several gallons of water) due to the breach of privacy (travel through the desert) that has already occurred.

> Furthermore, you do not have to take the exam in your own room. Any quiet room where there are no other people is theoretically fine. Having access to such a room is your own responsibility, just like having access to a laptop to do your study is your own responsibility.

During normal times, when there may be publicly available study rooms at a university, those options exist. When those same study rooms are closed to stop the spread of a pandemic, or when those study rooms cannot be booked due to lack of availability, a person's private room may be the only room available. In that case, the requirement of exposing one's exam space implicitly requires exposing one's personal space.

> I do not believe requiring students to have access to a private room for 2 hours breaches their privacy.

Requiring students to have access to a private room isn't the issue. Requiring proctors to have access to the student's private room is.

[joppy]

“Having access to such a room is your own responsibility”…

It might be a little much to ask for during a pandemic where people are stuck in places they didn’t expect to be for a long while though, with a whole bunch of other people also stuck inside.