On place, privacy, and ethics

Abstract

The personal and often highly individualized relationship with places leads to a number of questions related to privacy and ethics. This article addresses both privacy and ethics by arguing that location privacy needs to be considered a proxy for place privacy; that place-making exposes several inherently ethical dimensions, such as the participation in the place-making; and that equitable participation in platial information is an important component of ethical action in relation to places themselves. Building on this, corresponding need for further research is outlined, specifically concerning power relations acting on places and multicultural perspectives in research about place.