A starting point for discussion
The idea
The author says concerns about hiddenness—how data is collected and used—are grounded in privacy and control over personal information. Opacity—the difficulty of understanding the reasoning behind decisions—is a separate concern about people’s participation in political procedures and how systems may undermine that participation. The author says opacity is not about privacy, although some writers discussing it have framed it in those terms.
Place in the reasoning
AI assessment · Connected to reasoning
This separates the privacy basis of hiddenness concerns from the political-participation basis of opacity concerns.
Clear rules do not ensure meaningful participation
Identifies opacity as a participation concern, helping specify the kind of process problem at issue without conflating it with privacy.
What this means and why it matters
What this means
Hiddenness concerns how personal data is collected and used. Opacity concerns whether people can take part in political procedures and how algorithmic systems may undermine that participation.
Why it matters
Protecting privacy alone would not settle the separate question of whether people can take part in public decision-making. The author links opacity to whether public decision processes have a rightful basis to exercise authority, including when the reasoning behind decisions may be inaccessible to people.
Conditions & assumptions
Source coverage: Full readable text of the author manuscript from an accessible mirror; not the publisher’s formatted version. The passage expressly separates hiddenness, meaning how data is collected and used, from opacity, meaning whether people can understand decision reasoning. It grounds the first in privacy and control over personal information, and the second in political participation and the authority of public procedures. Addresses: The different values behind the two concerns
Questions this connects to
AI-suggested relationships. Authors have not necessarily responded to one another.