Crisp description of the concept of "privacy" in Cory Doctorow's book, "Little Brother" (chapter 4).

little-brother-privacy.txt

There's something really liberating about having some corner of your life 
that's *yours*, that no one gets to see except you. It's a little like nudity 
or taking a dump. Everyone gets naked every once in a while. Everyone has to 
squat on the toilet. There's nothing shameful, deviant or weird about either 
of them. But what if I decreed that from now on, every time you went to 
evacuate some solid waste, you'd have to do it in a glass room perched in
the middle of Times Square, and you'd be buck naked?

Even if you've got nothing wrong or weird with your body -- and how many of 
us can say that? -- you'd have to be pretty strange to like that idea. Most
of us would run screaming. Most of us would hold it in until we exploded.

It's not about doing something shameful. It's about doing something *private*. 
It's about your life belonging to you.