If you've nothing to hide

This approach is flawed. Buried only slightly beneath such an approach are the inescapable realities that as people we live  in communities; communities are merely the sum of a large number of other individuals; and the actions of one person  (exercising their rights) can have a (negative) effect on the interests of others.

We too often drum up rights without taking into account how they will affect the capacity of others to exercise their  rights.

Thus we see that the right of privacy for pedophiles still trumps the rights of parents and children to know the identity of  their neighbours, even though pedophilia destroys lives and the number of vigilante attacks on pedophiles in Australia is  negligible compared with the number of repeat attacks by pedophiles.

In the end, the right to privacy is the adult equivalent of Santa Claus and unicorns. No one has yet been able to identify  where the right to privacy comes from and why we need it.

Rather than enhancing our wellbeing privacy prevents us attaining things that really matter, such as safety and security,  and makes us paranoid of one another.

The advantages that we as individuals and the community as a whole will derive from an unchecked right to privacy will be  outweighed by the benefits from living in an open and transparent society.

Sure, we all need a little solitude, a space where we can let our hair down. Property rights already confer this quite well;  others aren't allowed to peep through our doors or curtains.

But, beyond this, there is no need to obsess about controlling what information is revealed about us. We are flawed, but so  are the others. That information will unite us.