The right to privacy is a fundamental human right defined in international and regional human rights instruments. As such it has been included as a core component of key legislature and policy proceedings throughout the brief history of the World Wide Web. While it is generally recognized in public policy making that the right to privacy is challenged in new ways in a structurally transformed online public sphere, the way in which it has been framed does not seem to acknowledge this transformation. This paper therefore argues for a reformulation of “online privacy” in the current global policy debate. It presents the results of a qualitative study amongst 68 Danish high school students concerning how they perceive, negotiate and control their private sphere when using social media and builds a case for utilizing the results of studies as this to inform the ongoing policy discourses concerning online privacy.

This article examines how staff working on two major Internet platforms—Google and Facebook—make sense of human rights such as freedom of expression and privacy. Based on interviews and online material, the article examines how the two rights are spoken of, how threats are perceived, and how the companies define their role in terms of protecting those rights. The article finds that both companies frame themselves as strongly committed to (and actively promoting) human rights. The framing, however, focuses primarily on potential human rights violations by governments, and pays less attention to areas where the companies’ own business practices may have a negative impact on their users’ rights and freedoms. While the platforms are spoken of using civic‐minded metaphors connected to people's ability to exercise rights and thus to participate in public life, the companies actually retain the freedom to set and enforce their own rules of engagement.

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