Editing Privacy (section)

===Personhood and autonomy===
Privacy may be understood as a necessary precondition for the development and preservation of personhood. Jeffrey Reiman defined privacy in terms of a recognition of one's ownership of their physical and mental reality and a moral right to [[self-determination]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|title = Privacy, Intimacy, and Personhood|last = Reiman|first = Jeffrey|date = 1976|journal = Philosophy & Public Affairs}}</ref> Through the "social ritual" of privacy, or the social practice of respecting an individual's privacy barriers, the social group communicates to developing children that they have exclusive moral rights to their bodies—in other words, moral ownership of their body.<ref name=":2" /> This entails control over both active (physical) and cognitive appropriation, the former being control over one's movements and actions and the latter being control over who can experience one's physical existence and when.<ref name=":2" />

Alternatively, Stanley Benn defined privacy in terms of a recognition of oneself as a subject with agency—as an individual with the capacity to choose.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title = Philosophical Dimensions of Privacy: An Anthology|last = Benn|first = Stanley|publisher = Cambridge University Press|location = New York|editor-first = Ferdinand|chapter = Privacy, freedom, and respect for persons|editor-last = Schoeman}}</ref> Privacy is required to exercise choice.<ref name=":3" /> Overt observation makes the individual aware of himself or herself as an object with a "determinate character" and "limited probabilities."<ref name=":3" /> Covert observation, on the other hand, changes the conditions in which the individual is exercising choice without his or her knowledge and consent.<ref name=":3" />

In addition, privacy may be viewed as a state that enables autonomy, a concept closely connected to that of personhood. According to Joseph Kufer, an autonomous self-concept entails a conception of oneself as a "purposeful, self-determining, responsible agent" and an awareness of one's capacity to control the boundary between self and other—that is, to control who can access and experience him or her and to what extent.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|title = Privacy, Autonomy, and Self-Concept|last = Kufer|first = Joseph|date = 1987|journal = American Philosophical Quarterly}}</ref> Furthermore, others must acknowledge and respect the self's boundaries—in other words, they must respect the individual's privacy.<ref name=":4" />

The studies of psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Victor Tausk show that, as children learn that they can control who can access and experience them and to what extent, they develop an autonomous self-concept.<ref name=":4" /> In addition, studies of adults in particular institutions, such as Erving Goffman's study of "total institutions" such as prisons and mental institutions,<ref>{{Cite book|title = Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates|last = Goffman|first = Erving|publisher = Doubleday|year = 1968|location = New York}}</ref> suggest that systemic and routinized deprivations or violations of privacy deteriorate one's sense of autonomy over time.<ref name=":4" />