Debunking the “Nothing to Hide” Argument Against Privacy
When discussing actions that could violate someone’s privacy, the “nothing to hide” argument is often raised as a reason not to worry. In this excerpt from his book “Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, author Daniel J. Solove points out that there are multiple types of privacy-related problems, and that the “nothing to hide” argument focuses largely on surveillance and disclosure of personal information while ignoring privacy issues related to aggregation, governmental powers, secondary use, and distortion, among others. It’s an essential read for anyone struggling with the tensions surrounding privacy, security, and commerce.
Privacy is the last bastion of freedom and personality what is token away from us, based on to many excuses of government, media and individuals who want to make a living of it.
Paparazzies started out with it, government entered quickly with supposedly National Security concerns, Facebook made a Billion Dollar business out of it and nothing seems to be private anymore. Even the Supreme Court endorsed it and to many crooks take advantage of it.
If we, the people do not fight back, because we feel we have nothing to hide, consider this: how do you feel, if there almost anyone with no consciousness and morale concerns can undress you in front of millions? That is almost equal of stripping your privacy away.
If you want to give guys who make a good living out of such immoral concepts, go ahed and take all your closes of, you truly have (cannot) hide anything (included your thoughts) anymore. And remember, anything you say or do can and will be used against you.