the right to privacy?

What is this right to privacy, and where did it come from? I ask non-rhetorically. At what point did this arise? Maybe a reaction to the shock & shame of realizing what we had done re: Japanese internment? Or, what? In a democratic society, assuming individuals are free, where no God is allowed judgment over another's followers and no despotic organization dictates our actions and rations our opinions, who is to judge? Perhaps this mantra is the fruition of the hippie generation's "don't judge' attitude, as well as their willingness to obscure the truth as long as it attains what they feel is a greater good. No founding father obsessed over the right to privacy, and I speculate that no upstanding Athenean ever did either - although I wonder about the state of the idea in the hedonism of the rotten & crumbling late Roman Empire, I suspect they were a bit more concerned about it as well.

So, what are all these people hiding? Why demand this "right" that hasn't got much historical root, or even social justification? If an act must be kept private, either those that might see it could be rightfully suspected of using the knowledge of that act in an immoral way (blackmail, etc), or the act itself is immoral. Boomers don't believe they have ever done anything immoral, so the first condition must be the guilty party.

Im my humble opinion, this obsession with privacy represents an abandonment of civic life, of democratic and free discussion, a statement that one's neighbors' opinions have no bearing on one's own- a contradiction of democracy itself.

If you are so just, why not share your justice as an example to your fellow citizens?