10.1. What do we mean by privacy?

That privacy has acted as a brake on the early adoption of LBS is perhaps the only aspect of the privacy debate that’s beyond question. This has been fueled by popular imagery of big brother–like spying on private individuals and, in a sense, by a growing voyeuristic instinct in the population at large (witness the success of reality TV shows like Big Brother, Temptation Island, and others).

But what do we mean by privacy, and why are so many people worried about losing it?