Is Privacy an outdated concept or a moral right?

26/06/2025 56 min

Listen "Is Privacy an outdated concept or a moral right?"

Episode Synopsis

ID cards are back on the political agenda, digital this time, being pushed by an influential group of Labour MPs, and – surveys suggest – public opinion, which is increasingly worried about illegal immigration and benefit fraud. Time was, when privacy was a free-born Briton’s birthright and a policeman asking for your papers anathema, the mark of foreign dictatorships. We live in a different world now where even your household gadgets are capable of gathering information on you. Is privacy out of date, or a moral good that’s the basis of freedom? Can we no longer tell the state – or Big Tech – to mind their own business, and does it matter?WITNESSES:
Kirsty Innes, Director of Technology at Labour Together
Rebecca Vincent, Interim director of Big Brother Watch
Dr Hazem Zohny, University of Oxford
Tiffany Jenkins, Cultural HistorianPANELLISTS:
Rev Dr Giles Fraser
Anne McElvoy
Lord Jonathan Sumption
Matthew TaylorChaired by Michael Buerk
Producer: Catherine Murray
Assistant Producer: Peter Everett
Editor: Tim Pemberton