  Priscilla Regan writes, for example, “I argue that privacy is not only of value to the individual, but also to society in general…..Privacy is a common value in that all individuals value some degree of privacy and have some common perceptions about privacy. Privacy is also a public value in that it has value not just to the individual as an individual or to all individuals in common but also to the democratic political system. Privacy is rapidly becoming a collective value in that technology and market forces are making it hard for any one person to have privacy without all persons having a similar minimum level of privacy” (Regan, 1995, 213). According to Daniel Solove, “By understanding privacy as shaped by the norms of society, we can better see why privacy should not be understood solely as an individual right…. Instead, privacy protects the individual because of the benefits it confers on society.” Moreover, “the value of privacy should be understood in terms of its contribution to society” (Solove, 2008, 98, 171fn.). Solove believes privacy fosters and encourages the moral autonomy of citizens, a central requirement of governance in a democracy. One way of understanding these comments, that privacy not only has intrinsic and extrinsic value to individuals but also has instrumental value to society, is to recognize that these views develop from the earlier philosophical writings (Fried 1970; Rachels, 1975; Schoeman; 1984, 1992) on the value of privacy in that it heightens respect for individual autonomy in decision-making for self-development and individual integrity and human dignity, but also enhances the value of privacy in various social roles and relationships that contribute to a functioning society. According to this contemporary scholarship, privacy norms help regulate social relationships such as intimate relations, family relationships, professional relationships including those between a physician and a patient, a lawyer or accountant and a client, a teacher and a student, and so on. Thus privacy enhances social interaction on a variety of levels. According to Solove, a society without respect for privacy for oneself and others becomes a “suffocating society” (Solove 2008; see also Kundera, 1984).