I find the responses to be quite similar. The students do not like others to ask personal questions or to obtain personal information without permission. I noticed that 1 french student wrote that reading text messages on the cell phone without permission is an invasion of privacy. In America, we don't use text messaging as often as the Europeans do. It's cheaper for us to call.

Like Maggie, I noticed the part about asking personal questions on both sides of the list. I like to think of myself as a very blunt and direct person, but I have come to realize that many times, out of politeness, I just pretend like nothing is happening and move on to a different topic. If I asked too many personal questions, I would be bound to hit a sore spot with somebody and he/she would hate me forever. Sometimes the best thing to do is to keep my mouth shut. I think a lot of people here in the US feel the same way. This is probably because as Americans, we each value privacy, and we try not to "butt" into other people's business. I'm not sure however, how other people view Americans in that respect. Does it seem as if Americans like to intrude into other people's lives? If so, what drives that notion? Is it the media, or our movies, or our politics, etc...? Does it seem like Americans just disregard privacy in general?

I just noticed something which seems somewhat surprising: the phrase in the american side is "my private life" even though the much more common term is "privacy." A quick search in a english-french dictionary showed no real synonym for this word (translation was: intimité, solitude). I, like everyone else, I suppose, just assumed the question said "privacy" when I looked at the phrase.

The interesting notion here is the difference between "private life," which assumes a clear distinction between "public" and "private" life, and "privacy," which is more of an omnipresent right like equality or liberty. The questions which arise are: do the french consider "privacy" a right? Is there a french word for privacy? Why was the question posed this way?

To add to Scott's confusion, the word privacy cannot be translated in Greek either. I believe public life, i.e. the life of an individual as a member of society, was much more important that private life.

What I find very interesting is that the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is that one's private life is invaded by other individuals and not by institutions or idealogical mechanisms. Our fear is about our friend or neighbour reading our emails and not about anti-terrorist laws and Echelon which have made it legal and possible for these emails to be used in a court of law against us. We feel invaded when someone asks us about our girlfriend or boyfriend, but how about discrimination in the workplace on the basis of private things such as sexual orientation and religion? Last, what do you think about our own bodies, which are at the core of our private life, being invaded by laws against euthanasia and abortion?

A l'attention de Iordanis

Je ne sais pas si la discrimination sexuelle ou raciale, soit du registre de la vie privée. En effet le sexe et la couleur de peau sont des choses qui ne dépendent pas de notre volonté (enfin normalement), qui sont la naturellement. Pour cette raison elle ne font pas partie de la vie privée telle que je la vois. Je me sentirais violé dans mes droits universels si je subissais une disrimination a cause de mon sexe ou de mon origine, mais il ce ne serais une violation de ma vie privée. Il en va de meme pour une discrimination religieuse. Sa pratique releve de la vie privée, mais l'etat confessionel releve de la vie sociale et repond aux droit.

Dans quelle mesure selon vous la famille et les enfants en particuliers sont du domaine de la vie privée ? Le lieu de vie est il l'antre de la vie privée ?

Merci

Félix