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?
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?
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
Unlock your phone, open WhatsApp, hand it to me.
Ask to see their butthole
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.
Ask to put a camera in their bathroom
“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.
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.
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.
It’s hard. Try to make them understand that it is not really about their data specifically, but about what these corporations can do with the aggregated data from millions of people. They can know things about us that we never told them and never wanted them, or anyone, to know. They can manipulate us into actions and behaviors that may or may not be benificial to us, that makes them the most money. They can decide who wins an election. They should not have that power.
You could make a super long argument against this but I think there’s a few simple points (that you can use any number of, you don’t really need all of these at once for most people) that usually get it across to people, at least from my experience.
There’s the moral/emotional argument:
“You do have something to hide. Wanna unlock your phone and let me go through all your messages/photos/emails, leave the bathroom door open all the time, and never close your blinds? Even if you aren’t doing something illegal AND have no problem with me seeing all your conversations and data, privacy is still a comfort for many people”
…and there’s the monetary arguments:
“If a company is collecting that data, it’s because they make money off it. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, and it’s the only reason Google, Facebook, etc can physically exist. If they know more about you, they can manipulate you into spending money with advertisers easier, allow political campaigns to manipulate your opinion more effectively, etc”
“You might not have a problem with how your data is used now, but if the law changes, or a corporation decides to do something different, suddenly data about your health and finances that was just for ads might then become a way to increase your health insurance pricing to the max you can afford”
what’s accepted now, can and will be used against you…
It’s already happening to me. I’m transgender. It’s already happening to me, my political views are being classified as extreme. I’m on lists. I’m surveiled.
It might be happening to you too.
I don’t really care how much they know about me specifically. But I’m very worried how much they know about all of us.
You have nothing to hide from the people currently in power
The people who used to say “I have nothing to hide” the loudest to me changed their tone real quick once Flock cameras started being used for ICE pickups, arresting people for traveling to other states for abortions, etc
