Art and Privacy Rights: East-European Literature and Film Through the Lens of Information Ethics

Abstract

Privacy is an important issue, but many have a hard time truly understanding the risks involved with surveillance. People often accept or reject certain ideas of privacy and surveillance depending on the art and pop culture that they consume. Fictional stories can inform perspectives and teach others to be wary of surveillance. People also tend to express concerns about subjects such as privacy in their artistic works. This paper studies a range of works that relate to privacy and the impact that it can have on citizens’ freedom, including such works as the dystopian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and the German film The Lives of Others. These works will be analyzed in terms of the ways that they connect to information science, as well as current privacy debates taking place in the United States. This paper focuses on Eastern Europe because East-European art and the way that it has been impacted by real privacy issues is a valuable example of the relationship between art/media, society, and government. This paper examines the choices that artists have made while criticizing privacy violations and what real life situations may have inspired those choices. This analysis is especially important now, as privacy is consistently at risk in the modern-day world, including the United States. Art can help to guide conversations about the value of privacy.

Keywords: privacy, surveillance, literature, east-european, soviet union, information ethics, film