The meaning of privacy is changing. In the emerging information economy, privacy no longer means preventing organisations and other people from knowing about us. Instead privacy now refers to concerns about the use and sharing of information –what shall and, crucially, shall not be done with personal data. Privacy cannot be an absolute right, but it remains a centrally important value in today’s society. As technology increases our capacity to store and manipulate information about each other we need to find new ways of thinking and talking about privacy.

While computers, networks, and smart cards now make it possible to produce and manipulate personal information; from shopping patterns to genetic make-up on an unprecedented scale, privacy in today’s society depends less on technologies and organisational arrangements and more on our culture beliefs, how people think and feel about privacy and how they value it.

This Demos collection will highlight new thinking about privacy in the UK, and seek to address the future challenges of the privacy agenda in an increasingly open society.

This project is being supported by