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Three Theories of Privacy: An Overview

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the current most important theories of privacy. The review is addressed to those unfamiliar with theories of privacy. It is my goal to provide those readers with a foundation on which to build. To this end, the chapter summarizes the two best articulated and best supported theories of privacy (Altman 1975; Westin 1967) as well as Petronio’s (2002) communication privacy management (CPM) theory, an important extension of Altman’s theory that is particularly suited for the study of social networking. Additionally, this chapter considers two larger issues about what privacy is: issues in defining privacy and lessons to be learned from Altman’s and Westin’s theories. I begin with the three theories of privacy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter draws heavily on two articles by the author in the Journal of Social Issues (Margulis 2003a, b). The author wishes to thank Wiley-Blackwell for allowing the use of this material. I wish to thank Sandra Petronio for her very helpful review of her theory and for providing published and unpublished material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

    Stephen T. Margulis

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  1. Stephen T. Margulis
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Correspondence to Stephen T. Margulis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Fachbereich Psychologie, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, Hamburg, 20146, Germany

    Sabine Trepte

  2. , Fachbereich Psychologie, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, Hamburg, 20146, Germany

    Leonard Reinecke

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Margulis, S.T. (2011). Three Theories of Privacy: An Overview. In: Trepte, S., Reinecke, L. (eds) Privacy Online. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21521-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21521-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21520-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21521-6

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