Privacy and technology

From the text:

“The phone-hacking saga tells us things about privacy, as well. Firstly, it shows us that, in the wrong hands, there is sometimes a fine line between the exposure of private lives and blackmail. In several recent cases involving privacy injunctions the judges have actually used the word ‘blackmail’ about material being hawked around Fleet Street and its agents. They’re not describing a literal criminal offence which the police should investigate. They’re describing a trade-off between money for secrets, and/or money for silence of the sort that is familiar from blackmail cases. […] Secondly, it teaches us how sickened people feel when their privacy is invaded. ‘Violated’ was the word used by the former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, when he looked at the pages which showed how his own phone messages had been intercepted. If you speak to other victims of the hacking they will tell you how deeply repulsive it was to think of a stranger listening into private communications with loved ones or family. […] What else did we learn from the phone-hacking saga? Well, talking of rules and codes, we discovered that the thing that we call ‘self-regulation’ in the press is no such thing.”