Privacy is a relatively new concept, and the idea that individuals are entitled to complete privacy is a very new and radical concept.
I am as pro-privacy as they come, but let’s not pretend that government and corporate surveillance is some wild new thing that just appeared. Read Horace’s Satires for insight into how non-private private correspondence often was in Ancient Rome.
It's a bit of both. Village societies don't have a lot of privacy. But they also don't make it possible for powerful individuals to datamine personal information of millions.
Most of us have more privacy than 200 years ago in some ways, and much less privacy in other ways.
I am as pro-privacy as they come, but let’s not pretend that government and corporate surveillance is some wild new thing that just appeared. Read Horace’s Satires for insight into how non-private private correspondence often was in Ancient Rome.