Whose Privacy Is at Stake? Confusing Empathy and Consideration with Remaining Silent

It could be that there are different styles of research and that the non-directive stance recommended in biographical research and in ethnography is a good enough explanation for not asking my interview partners about anything that they have not already brought up as a topic. But the methodological cues fit my own disposition only too well. How can I know that I am not mainly responding to my own need of privacy, even in research situations? That I am not shrinking away from what my interview partners would want to tell me about? And what would the bodily dimensions be to recognize whether I am respecting my interview partner’s privacy or guarding my own?