---
schema: 1
type: term
title: _contextual integrity_
description: >-
  **Contextual integrity** is Helen Nissenbaum's privacy framework, cited in
  this material as the inspiration for **contextual flow control**: the
  principle that personal data should be used only in contexts you understand
  and that align with your interests — going beyond consent forms and end-to-end
  encryption.
canonical: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/contextual-integrity-3e77df19603f
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/contextual-integrity-3e77df19603f.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \_contextual integrity\_

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/contextual-integrity-3e77df19603f

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Contextual integrity** is Helen Nissenbaum's privacy framework, cited in this material as the inspiration for **contextual flow control**: the principle that personal data should be used only in contexts you understand and that align with your interests — going beyond consent forms and end-to-end encryption.

_Contextual integrity_ is the name of a privacy framework by **Helen Nissenbaum**, cited by Alex Komoroske as the inspiration for his proposed alternative to the web's current security model: **contextual flow control**. [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1771]Komoroske invokes the idea while explaining what is missing from today's architectures. His **iron triangle** says a safe system can have only two of untrusted code, sensitive data, and network access — and breaking that triangle with tools like information flow control and confidential computing points toward systems where data flows *by context*, not by origin or blanket consent.A concrete example he gives is **context mushing** in chatbot memory: a chatbot surfaced the starting salary from a months-old negotiation in a totally unrelated conversation. As he puts it, *your therapist never shows up at your place of work* — yet a single mega-context mushes therapy talk, salary negotiations, and work presentations together, violating the contextual boundaries people intuitively expect. [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@3592]- **Contextual integrity** is Nissenbaum's privacy framework: data should be used in contexts you understand and that align with your interests — beyond consent forms or end-to-end encryption. - Komoroske builds **contextual flow control** on it, as a path past the web's **same-origin paradigm** and his **iron triangle**. - It explains why **context mushing** in chatbot memory feels wrong: different life contexts should not bleed into one another. - Related pressure point: **prompt injection**, where untrusted context flowing into an agent becomes the real threat. [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@3699]