Supererogatory consumer choices grounded in the human right to privacy

Abstract The deployment of privacy-reducing digital products is a well-known contemporary issue. Multiple conceptual, regulatory, and legal approaches have attempted to address it. This article illuminates a complementary approach yet to be explored: supererogatory consumer choices grounded in the human right to privacy. It argues that the operation of privacy is not limited to vertical relations of power under legal frameworks, but can also operate in horizontal relations of power by way of supererogation as it applies to consumer decision-making about digital products. The analysis posits that for privacy to be operationalized in this way, three prerequisites of related supererogatory decisions need to align, which are the discretion to make an unobligated choice, sufficient personal privilege, and a level of care for ‘reciprocal privacy’ that overcomes any applicable bystander effect. Despite the potential to protect privacy by supererogatory consumer choices, there simultaneously exists scope to abuse this idea via responsibilization.