But foregrounding personal privacy in this way is unethical unless it is backed by policy to ensure that those rights are protected. Thus, this case set a precedent of implying national security through the rhetoric of private protection. When a judge ruled that the royal family’s “private life forms their unquestionable title,” he defined their sovereignty through-not separately from-their domestic life. In 1849, monarchies had been toppling across Europe, and England’s was shaky too. Because the etchings were for Albert and Victoria’s “ private use and pleasure,” sharing data about them would strip them of their right to domestic privacy. By 1890, American privacy laws were established by citing this 1849 case, arguing that even celebrities have “the right to one’s personality.” By prohibiting the catalog, the 1849 case affirmed personal privacy and defined it primarily through family life. This proved a foundational case on both sides of the Atlantic. (The sketches themselves had already been ruled private property in a separate case.) In other words, it turned the royal couple’s private life into information and made it available for sale. The catalog in question included descriptions of etchings that depicted the royals’ children in the nursery, their friends, and their dogs alongside commentary and critique. In the case, Albert represented not only himself but also the monarch, Queen Victoria. The 1849 ruling in favor of Prince Albert laid the groundwork for thinking about data as at once personal and national, rather than simply one or the other.

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