A recent CNN article reports that relationships between EU officials and the US have been “severely shaken” on account of information leaked by Edward Snowden that the NSA monitored the personal cell phones of 35 world leaders, possibly including Germany’s Angela Merkel. The statement made by Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco raises the important question: Are we collecting information because we need it or just because we can?

While privacy and publicity are often portrayed as a tradeoff, the editors at Cyborgology demonstrate that in many cases, one is a necessary condition for the other.

• Jurgenson, N., and Rey, P.J.  2013. The Fan Dance: How Privacy Thrives in an Age of Hyper-Publicity.  In Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and their Alternatives. Lovink, G. and Ratsch, M. (eds.). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. 62-75.

Although we typically think privacy is “freedom from” government intrusion, some scholars say society makes it a “freedom to” choose whether or not to disclose personal information. From this perspective,  both social and technological solutions are needed to solve privacy issues.

• Boyd, D. and Marwick, A. September 22, 2011.  Social Privacy in Networked Publics: Teens’ Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies.  A Decade in Internet Time: Symposium on the Dynamics of the Internet and Society.

Leading scholars show how many government practices are invented and learned to manage their populations.

• The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality: With Two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault. 1991. Burchell, G., Gordon, C.,&  Miller, P. (Eds.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.