Whenever i talk to people about privacy, specifically my friends when i tell them why i switched to Signal and stopped using WhatsApp, i’m always met with people saying that i’m just making no sense and “why would you care so much if you have nothing to hide? I don’t care that meta sees that stuff” and some people are just so stubborn to understand that they might even settle on the “what would a billion dollar company want from me specifically?”. It makes me mad how people refuse to even consider alternatives and open their mind a bit. What do you think?
Well, maybe they actually do have nothing to hide? I’ve recently realised that people who are dependent on Big Tech just don’t value their privacy the same way babies don’t care about being naked in front of other people. If you hand over the responsibility for your life to somebody else, you kind of hand over yourself, too, and there’s no point in seeking privacy anymore. So the actual issue is people’s passiveness and lack of agency in their interaction with tech. If they embrace FOSS, that is being a creator and not just a consumer in the world of software, they’ll start valuing their privacy, just like a teenager learning to be independent simultaneously develops the need for having their own boundaries.
Ask them for their SSN, bank account number, and how much money they make before taxes.
Then why do you close the door when you take a shit?
Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say. - Edward Snowden
Do they know about algorithmic pricing? Most people don’t like the idea of a company charging them more based on how desperate they are.
Do they know about DHS’ new Predictive Policing.
Do they know that scammers can use info they gather about them to run scams on their loved ones pretending to be them?
Do they know that there are legitimate reasons to want privacy? Ex. a journalist investigating a politician or corporation, or a single mom trying to keep themselves and their kids away from a crazy ex.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Ask them to unlock their phone and hand it to you. Let you go through whatever you want.
Can I come and search your house? You have nothing to hide so what’s the problem?
Unlock your phone, open WhatsApp, hand it to me.
Saying privacy doesn’t matter because you have nothing to hide is like saying free speech doesn’t matter because you have nothing to say
Ask to see their butthole
I know people that would actually do that, it’s tpo risky.
Yeah, way too many people.
Not caring about privacy because you have nothing to hide is the same thing like opposing freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.
Dynamic pricing.
Your grocery store will know enough about you to charge the maximum amount you’re willing to pay and not a penny less.
This is a good argument.
You will see me on the news when I set the speed record for breaking every single electronic price tag in an entire grocery store.
Ask to put a camera in their bathroom
They need to consider the difference between having something to hide and having something to protect. Privacy is something to protect, regardless of what it might be in aid of.
“Okay, unlock your phone and hand it over so I can go through it.”
That’s where they all get cold feet. All of them.
You might just be in a bubble of privacy-minded people. I know many people who would hand over their phone unlocked at the drop of a hat. Their digital lives just don’t mean anything to them. But more likely, they don’t appreciate the damage someone can do with that access.
