Questions
What Is the Place of Privacy in an Information Age?
Summary: Privacy in the information age is genuinely uncertain and requires ongoing negotiation; the core tension—balancing what we surrender for the common good against what we retain to resist tyrannical excess—has been with us since Plato, but AI deepfakes and data analytics have added a new dimension of pseudo-privacy.
The simple answer is that the place of privacy is currently uncertain. As the capacity for data collection and analysis expands, we face ongoing decisions about what data to surrender and what data to keep under our control. While the digital age certainly raises new concerns about privacy, even philosophers like Plato considered the relationship between privacy and the public good.
The basic privacy debate hasn’t changed much over the years. We are consistently in the position of negotiating our willingness to give up certain information about ourselves for the good of our community and our desire to protect against tyrannical excess—protecting ourselves (and others!) from government overreach. In an information age, we also have an increased concern for bad actors.
In addition to privacy as we normally think about it—the freedom from being observed and/or disturbed by others—we now have to consider something of a pseudo-privacy due to AI deepfakes. Because the virtual world and the real world have begun to merge together, there is a sense in which deepfake representations have a similar “exposure” effect as the release of actual data.
Overall, privacy in the information age is in flux. There is a need for ongoing negotiation and re-negotiation as new technological possibilities arise. It seems appropriate for us to retain some level of privacy while, at the same time, acknowledging that self-protection via privacy can go too far. We are individuals, but we are also part of multiple communities. We can’t simply make decisions based on what is good for us. We also need to consider how our decisions contribute to the common good.
Though she does not address privacy, Nancy Pearcey’s distinction between contractual and covenantal relationships in The Toxic War on Masculinity is instructive. She suggests, “Both [covenants and contracts] are agreements, but the differences between them are crucial. A contract defines an exchange of goods and services. But a covenant defines a moral relationship between persons. In a contract, I seek my own interests, I strike a deal. But in a covenant, I seek the common good of the relationship and everyone in it.” It seems appropriate for Christians to think in covenantal terms as we consider how to reinforce the common good while pointing beyond that good to the Triune God who defines what “good” is.
Key Takeaways: Privacy in Negotiation
- An Ancient Tension: The privacy/common good tension stretches back to Plato; only the technological possibilities keep changing.
- Pseudo-Privacy: AI deepfakes create exposure effects similar to actual data release, blurring virtual and real privacy boundaries.
- Pearcey’s Distinction: Nancy Pearcey (The Toxic War on Masculinity) distinguishes contractual exchange from covenantal common-good orientation—a useful frame for Christian privacy ethics.
- The “So What”: Christians should negotiate privacy covenantally—seeking the common good while pointing beyond it to the Triune God who defines “good.”
About the Author — James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners; he has been quoted in The Telegraph; and he is a regular guest on Stand in the Gap Today with the American Pastors Network. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.