got privacy?  Musings on the state of Privacy in a connected world.
 
A man drives out of his own driveway and drives into a post.  This story probably wouldn't even make the local paper unless it was a slow news day, but because the man in this particular situation was Tiger Woods, this has been front page news on both sides of the Atlantic.

What reasonable expectation can celebrities have to privacy?  What right to privacy should celebrities reasonably expect, in circumstances where they are involved in minor incidents that the rest of us would not expect to of real interest.

As of this afternoon, Tiger has said that he won't be playing any more golf tournaments until 2010.  I'm sure that he doesn't need the money, but unfortunately, this is likely to fan the flames even further.

So - what expectations of privacy should anyone be able to expect in a situation like this.  Have celebrities, by their very status, given up any expectation of privacy in any circle of life?  It's interesting to ponder whether there is a sliding scale of privacy which is inversely proportional to how famous (or rich?) someone is. 

To me - that seems to be an equivalent of (Security Through Obscurity) (call it Privacy Through Obscurity) which doesn't really sit very well.  If we really want privacy to be protected we need to make sure that it is actively defended, rather than gradually eroded as someone becomes more "interesting".
 
Looks like privacy does have a price - at least if you're David Letterman.  It appears that Letterman was subject to a blackmail plot, and as part of the fallout he has had to relinquish some of his privacy - information that he had been sleeping with some of the women who worked on his show (although at this point in time, it is not clear how many women and when this occurred).  Obviously this information would have come out when the alleged blackmailer ended up in court - and at least some credit goes to Letterman for the chutzpah to break the news on his show this week.  The whole incident did leave me wondering though - how much would have to be at stake for me to expose previously known information about me that could threaten my job, my marriage and my reputation?  It's a question that I hope never to have to answer in reality.