Who This Is For (and Who It Is Not)
This page is for someone who suspects privacy might matter to them, but isn't sure if it's a core value or just a preference. You might say "I value privacy" in a survey, but you're unclear whether you'd actually choose it over other things that matter—autonomy, safety, career advancement, connection—when those things compete. You're asking the question because something in your life has made that distinction real: a relationship that pushes you to share more than feels right, a job that monitors your work, a platform decision that exposed something you'd rather keep hidden.
This is not for someone who has already decided their position on privacy and is looking for validation. And it's not for someone who is genuinely indifferent to what others know about them. Privacy as a value assumes you care about the boundary between what you control and what you don't. If that boundary doesn't matter to you, this will feel irrelevant.
This page assumes you know the basics of how values work—that they're stable across time, that they guide your choices, and that living them creates a sense of coherence. What you're uncertain about is whether privacy is one of yours, and what that actually means when you're trying to make a real decision.
What You Will Discover
Once you understand what privacy actually is as a value—as opposed to a precaution or a social norm—you'll see where it sits in your hierarchy relative to everything else. Shalom Schwartz's research, conducted across 80+ countries starting in 1992, mapped how 10 universal value types relate to each other. Privacy doesn't appear in Schwartz's original typology as a standalone value, but it sits at the intersection of several that do: security (the need to feel safe and stable), autonomy (the need to direct your own life), and self-direction (the need to make your own choices). Understanding which of these you actually prioritize will clarify whether privacy serves those underlying values or whether you're defending it out of habit.
You'll also see the trade-offs you're actually making. In Schwartz's circumplex model, values that sit opposite each other in the structure are fundamentally in tension. If you value openness and transparency highly, privacy will resist that. If you value connection and belonging, the boundaries that privacy requires will cost you. This doesn't mean you can't have both—people do. But it means you'll stop being vague about which one wins when they collide, and you'll make decisions from that clarity instead of from guilt or confusion.
Common Reasons People Wait
The first reason is that privacy feels obvious, so you assume you already understand it. You don't need to examine something so basic. But "I value privacy" can mean very different things: it can mean you need solitude to recharge, that you distrust institutions, that you want control over your image, that you fear exposure, or that you believe information is power. Each of those points to a different underlying value and creates different choices. Naming which one actually drives you is not obvious.
The second reason is fear that you'll discover you don't value privacy as much as you think you should. Privacy feels important in theory, especially in a culture that talks about it constantly, but when you look at your actual choices—what you share, where you spend your time, what you disclose—you might find it ranks lower than you expected. That's not a failure. It's useful information. Many people discover they're willing to trade privacy for connection, opportunity, or efficiency, and once they admit that, they can stop pretending and make better choices.
The third reason is that you're not sure what you'd do with this information once you have it. Understanding your values is one thing; living them is harder, especially if it means saying no to things you also want. If privacy matters to you and you're in a relationship that demands total transparency, or a job that monitors everything, or a life where everyone expects constant availability, clarifying that this is a real value for you makes the conflict harder to ignore. It's safer to leave it vague. But vagueness costs you in constant small compromises and a growing sense that you're not being honest about what you need.
The My Values assessment surfaces your core values, ranks them, and shows you exactly where your life is and is not aligned with them.
What does privacy mean as a value versus a practical concern?
A practical concern is something you do to avoid harm: you don't share your password because it protects your account. A value is something that matters intrinsically, that guides your choices even when there's no immediate risk. If privacy is a value for you, you care about the boundary itself—the right to control information about yourself—regardless of whether that information would actually harm you if exposed.
How do I know if privacy is a core value or just a cultural message?
Look at where you actually defend it. If you're private about information because your culture says you should be, but you don't feel distressed when the boundary is crossed, it's probably not a core value for you. If you feel violated, resentful, or deeply uncomfortable when someone overreaches, privacy is likely core. The emotion is the signal.
What if I value privacy but my partner values transparency?
That's a real tension that Schwartz's framework captures: values that sit opposite each other in the circumplex require negotiation, not resolution. You can establish boundaries that honor both (privacy in certain domains, transparency in others), or you can clarify which value matters more to you and make decisions accordingly. But you can't eliminate the tension.
Can privacy be a core value if I also share things on social media?
Yes. What matters is what you control. You can value the right to choose what you share while choosing to share certain things publicly. The value is about agency—being able to decide. If you feel pressured to share, or if sharing makes you uncomfortable because you don't want to, then the boundary is being violated regardless of what you post.