> I recently heard Sam Harris opine that from a utilitarian perspective, an absolutist right to privacy pales in comparison to allowing harm to come to children

> I recently heard Sam Harris opine that from a utilitarian perspective, an absolutist right to privacy pales in comparison to allowing harm to come to children, and so the tech community needs to flex a little on the privacy question, and meet law enforcement halfway. Through that reductionist lens, it's hard to find fault in the argument. I'd say it's pretty easy. For utilitarianism to make sense, it has to take the future into account. And what looks like an absolutist right to privacy might be a utilitarian argument of the type that if you grant a monopoly of power (private or public) the right to make use of your private information, then it could well use that private information against you later. An integral utilitarian might then say "it's worth some harm to children today to ensure there won't be great harm tomorrow". That kind of being able to trade off different scenarios of harm without regard to absolute principle is pretty much what characterizes (act) utilitarianism.