论隐私的社会生成机制——以习俗和法律关系为视角

The Social Genetation Mechanism of Privacy——From the Perspective of the Relationship between Custom and Law

隐私是一种普遍存在的社会制度。它不仅有助于人们维护人格尊严和抵御社会压力,也有助于人群组织或者社会的构成与团结。隐私可以生成为习俗、契约和权利等多种形态。在传统社会,隐私主要以习俗为载体;进入现代社会后,隐私权则成为更主要的隐私制度,出现这一转变的原因在于:信息技术的进步,打破了传统社会阶层之间的信息壁垒;社会物质条件的改善,让人们享有更为独立的私人空间,以及形成了多元化的社会生活场景;人与人之间的亲密性,也因为空间结构以及公私关系的改变,变得越来越淡薄。传统隐私习俗已经不能满足新的社会需求,而隐私权则能更好地适应隐私制度碎片化和个人化的趋势。但是只要人们依然需要社会生活,那么也就需要在人群、组织以及社会范围内分享隐私。因此在现代社会,隐私权不能成为唯一的隐私制度,而隐私习俗依然具有新生的可能性。

Privacy has always been a social institution.It not only helps individuals maintain their dignity and resist social pressure,but also promotes social construction and unity.Privacy may take various forms like custom,contract and right.In traditional society,privacy is mainly based on custom.While in modern society,privacy right has become a more important form.The reasons for this change are as follows:the advancement of information technology has broken the border between different social classes;the improvement of social material conditions has allowed people to enjoy more independent private space and to form diversified social life scenes;with the reorganization of spatial structure and public-private relationship,social intimacy between individuals has become much weaker than before.Traditional privacy customs can no longer meet new social needs.Meanwhile,the form of right is more suit able for privacy's modern trends like fragmentation and personalization.But as long as individuals still need intimate relationship and social intercourse,they have to share privacy among people,organizations or society.Therefore,in modern society,privacy right cannot be the only form of privacy institution,and privacy customs still have opportunity to be reborn.