GLASS PANELS AND PEEPHOLES: NONHUMAN ANIMALS AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY BY ANGIE PEPPER Abstract: In this paper, I defend the claim that many sentient nonhuman animals have a right to privacy. I begin by outlining the view that the human right to privacy protects our interest in shaping different kinds of relationships with one another by giving us control over how we present ourselves to others. I then draw on empirical research to show that nonhuman animals also have this interest, which grounds a right to privacy against us. I further argue that we can violate this right even when other animals are unaware that we are watching them. Man likes to think that his desire for privacy is distinctively human, a function of his unique ethical, intellectual, and artistic needs. Yet studies of animal behaviour and social organization suggest that man’s need for privacy may well be rooted in his animal origins, and that men and animals share several basic mechanisms for claiming privacy among their own fellows. (Alan Westin, 1984 [1967], p. 56) 1. Introduction Studies in animal behaviour show that sentient animals have strong interests in solitude, intimacy and concealment. Although this fact is widely acknowl- edged in the philosophical literature on privacy, discussion is exclusively fo- cused on the question of whether humans possess a right to privacy and what the scope of such a right might be. And, while animal rights theorists have Pacific Philosophical Quarterly •• (2020) ••–•• DOI: 10.1111/papq.12329 © 2020 University of Southern California and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1