What is a good comeback or argument towards people who say “But I have nothing to hide” when you try to information them that privacy is important?

  • WindAqueduct@lemmy.ml
    7·
    8 hours ago

    Nothing to hide doesn’t mean everything to share. When it comes to id verification specifically talk about:

    1. how storing millions of IDs will be a tempting honeypot for hackers, making data breaches much more likely and much more common.
    2. how these companies will become a digital playground for traffickers searching through leaked IDs, looking for potential trafficking victims.
    3. how these laws could lead to stalking, harassment, and get people murdered or raped.
    4. how these laws could escalate political violence in a society already divided and rife with polarization. Having access to someone’s address, searching their address on Google Maps, seeing a political sign in the yard is political violence waiting to happen.
    5. how these laws could very well lead to someone committing suicide after their ID is leaked and posted, which led to them being stalked or harassed.

    When people doubt you or accuse you of paranoia, concern trolling, or fear mongering:

    1. Remind them about the Tea app incident (in which 13,000 IDs were leaked and posted online) and ask what if Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit is next?
    2. Tell them: Don’t underestimate hackers and don’t trust these companies to delete your information.
    3. Tell them: Don’t underestimate what people are actually capable of and the kinds of ideas that go through people’s heads (there are some really bad people and really unhinged people in the world).
    4. Even accuse your politicians and lawmakers of backing or being behind human trafficking rings if you have to to let them know how serious these risks are.

    Also remind them that wanting surveillance to make sure everyone is following the law is bad because not all laws are good! Civil disobedience is a powerful tool against tyranny and we must protect it. I don’t want a society where no one breaks the law.

    • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      Nothing to hide

      This word ‘hide’ is quite problematic, however, it is a testament to the power of propaganda. Using the word ‘hide’ gives the connotation of doing something nefarious. ‘What are you hiding? It must be bad else you wouldn’t be hiding it.’ Keys and locks prevent unauthorized access, full stop. They do not portend nor foreshadow guilt in any way. If they did, everyone with a key chain in their pocket would go directly to jail.

      We generate data everyday in our digital lives. Whom does it belong to? Me!! This is my data. I generated it with my labor. I secure it. I archive it. I mother hen it. I reserve the right to share it or not. My labor may just be in the form of clickety click click, but it’s still my property. As much my property as any worldly possessions I may own. It is certainly not to property of corporate business who are involved with surveillance capitalism. When a corporation’s website checks cookies to see where I’ve been previously, and use that data to bolster the company’s profit margins, without giving me due compensation, that is THEFT. It is as much theft as if I walked into the self same company’s CFO’s office, picked up a paperweight off his desk, and walked out with it. It’s theft. One of the biggest thieves on the planet that readily comes to mind is Google. Ever wonder how Google got it’s fingers into everyone’s pie? They build their multi billion dollar company on the data of it’s users. They stole it.

      It also doesn’t belong to the government either. One of the questions I get asked a lot is, ‘Are you hiding from the government’ which I think is hilarious. I send them tax forms every year. Every four years I vote, and in local elections. Long time ago, Social Security used to send me letters telling me how much they weren’t going to give me of my money. What a crock of shit that is. While I am not ‘hiding’ from the government, there is absolute no reason to overshare either.

      The same mechanisms that provide security, protection, and privacy in the home, be they locks on the front door, surveillance cams, window blinds, alarm systems, are the same mechanisms that keep your data safe, secure, and private on your network. Just because I have black out curtains on my windows doesn’t mean I am hiding a damn thing. It means I wish to keep whatever it is that I am doing, private. Same with data my data.

      Encrypting something does not mean being guilty of hiding something nefarious. It is a key and a lock that prevents unauthorized access.

      Sorry for the rant. You make great points. It just makes me cringe when people say ‘hide’. It’s like little fingernails on the chalkboard of my mind.