What is Information Privacy?

American Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thompson, says privacy is "The right to be let alone." p.231 in book

The English common-law tradition has been that “a man’s home is his castle.” No one—not even the king—can enter without permission, unless there is probable cause of criminal activity. p232 in book

Related to the Movie

In this movie we can see both interpretations of privacy being broken. The right to be let alone is broken multiple times and in multiple ways. One example is when the people running away are disintegrated, meaning they were killed in public. Obviously public execution goes against leaving people alone. 

With the Interpretation of having privacy in your home, we see cases where the robot tripods are destroying building and peoples houses and we see aliens invading private spaces with cameras and on foot.

Privacy Laws:

This scene takes place in a suburban part of New York.

According to New York Law: N.Y. Penal Law §§ 250.00, 250.05 (McKinney 2012) . It is illegal to record people or conversations without the consent of at least one person involved. This is referred to as a One Party Consent State.

We all know that these are aliens and that they will probably not be prosecuted, however if they were then this would be one of the charges they would have. This is because obviously no one in the house at the time wanted to be spotted by the alien camera meaning they withheld consent.

Other potential laws broken could be, Criminal Trespass, Eavesdropping, and Lawsuits for damages caused in the process. Generally these are all federal laws.

Sites:

Look up specific laws in different states: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/video-surveillance-laws-by-state