“I have nothing to hide” until the government decides what you are and always have been has suddenly become a crime. Now all those years of “not hiding” makes conviction guaranteed.
this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2024
231 points (97.1% liked)
privacy
5721 readers
1 users here now
Big tech and governments are monitoring and recording your eating activities. c/Privacy provides tips and tricks to protect your privacy against global surveillance.
Partners:
- community.nicfab.it/c/privacy
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
The whole abortion thing in the US is pretty perfect to demonstrate that argument. You can assume that you have nothing to hide in the current political situation of your country, but say that somehow changes and they define you as the outgroup and suddenly things are very different. I wouldn't want a cryptographic backdoor in my messenger, then. Looking at you, EU
Or assume you're visiting China or some other country with strong opinions on how you're allowed to speak of the ruling party. Or some religious extremist country that doesn't like women. Or one where drug cartels pull the strings and they may think you have valuable skills. (I think I'm approaching 3/4 of the world.)
Which leads to an interesting conclusion. The argument "I have nothing to hide" is very first world problem-y. It's a luxury that we can afford to not look behind our figurative backs all the time.
Instead of "I have nothing to hide," we should be thinking, "I have nothing to show." Privacy should be the default.
I have nothing to hide, but I understand how important it is for me to be able to hide something should I need to.
Privacy needs to be possible.
And default.
Well sure, but to what degree, that's sort of different.
People argued hard against a census when it was introduced, but we our modern systems require information of the populace.
As long as the government isn't corrupt as fuck and doesn't excessively pry into the lives of it's private citizens, I'm okay.
But then we face the issue on not a single government filling that criteria.
I'm okay.
I'm not. Any given entity should have the minimum information necessary to perform its function.
Look at everyone freaking out when the regime changes, and then the next time they regain control, they again support even more expansion of power. And then the regime changes again and they're worried about abuse of power again.
Don't trust an org because it's benevolent today. Management changes, breaches happen, etc. An org should only have the info it actually needs.
I think the "problem" with privacy is it is new and people have not evolved with the concept. Think about it we grew evolved from tribes to towns and in those generations everyone knew everyone and what was happening. Hell multi bedroom dwellings are a fairly new idea and people had multiple kids.