Autonomy is the capacity of an actor to make an informed and uncoerced decision and to act on that decision. Autonomous agents are pieces of intelligent software that serve the interests of a user without direct input from the user at the time of action.
The concept of autonomy arises in three places relating to privacy. First, consent (to the use of private information or personal data) is a key basis for data processing under many information laws. Its aim is to support the autonomy of data subjects by allowing them to decide whether and when information about them can be used. A common objection, made for example by Solomon Barocas and Helen Nissenbaum, is that consent does not confer autonomy because (a) it is rarely informed consent, as the uses of information are opaque, and (b) it is commonly coerced, for example by p. 35requiring consent to an intrusive privacy policy to receive a service. A reply, made by Daniel Solove among others, is that regulating how information may be used directly, overriding consent in the data subjects’ interests, allows no input from data subjects at all, and so arguably renders them less rather than more autonomous.
A second discussion of autonomy criticises the idea of decisional privacy (the ability to make decisions without interference), with some, such as Judith Jarvis Thomson, claiming that the latter, rather than being any kind of privacy at all, is only another name for autonomy. Third, commentators such as Beate Rössler argue that privacy is a prerequisite for autonomy, so that individuals can defend a space in which they can make their uncoerced decisions.
Further reading:
See also: RELATIONAL AUTONOMY
Barocas, S. and Nissenbaum, H., 2009. On notice: the trouble with notice and consent. In: Proceedings of the Engaging Data Forum: The First International Forum on the Application and Management of Personal Electronic Information. Available from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2567409.
Rössler, B., 2005.The value of privacy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Solove, D.J., 2013. Privacy self-management and the consent dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 126(7), 1880–1903. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3456224.
Thomson, J.J., 1975. The right to privacy. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 4(4), 295–314.
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Barocas, S. and Nissenbaum, H., 2009. On notice: the trouble with notice and consent. In: Proceedings of the Engaging Data Forum: The First International Forum on the Application and Management of Personal Electronic Information. Available from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2567409.
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Rössler, B., 2005.The value of privacy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
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Solove, D.J., 2013. Privacy self-management and the consent dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 126(7), 1880–1903. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3456224.
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Thomson, J.J., 1975. The right to privacy. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 4(4), 295–314.
