Privacy is not a Industrial Age stuff... I could be private in Rome, just as I'm now, just a random dude working... A small cog, no one gets to know me, no on cares to gossip about me... Be it now, be it on Renascence in Venice, be it on Rome just before the senators kill Caesar, be it on Luoyang as the tensions rose between the Warring States...
At any point in time, I could have a private conversation, write and hide a document, like some stuff that was socially unacceptable and keep it a secret, meet someone in secret, and, in general, lead a private life... Stop comparing urban life as if it is something modern... Of course it is much more prevalent now, as the ratio vs rural residents shifted, and sure, it is much harder to hide something on a small village of some dozens of people, or at a farm with a huge family, but in any major city of any era, you could be as hidden and private as today, if not more...
At any point in time, I could have a private conversation, write and hide a document, like some stuff that was socially unacceptable and keep it a secret, meet someone in secret, and, in general, lead a private life... Stop comparing urban life as if it is something modern... Of course it is much more prevalent now, as the ratio vs rural residents shifted, and sure, it is much harder to hide something on a small village of some dozens of people, or at a farm with a huge family, but in any major city of any era, you could be as hidden and private as today, if not more...