Data privacy: how to counter the "I have nothing to hide" argument?
Data privacy: how to counter the "I have nothing to hide" argument?
I know data privacy is important and I know that big corporations like Meta became powerful enough to even manipulate elections using our data.
But, when I talk to people in general, most seem to not worry because they "have nothing to hide", and most are only worried about their passwords, banking apps and not much else.
So, why should people worry about data privacy even if they have "nothing to hide"?
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Well, maybe you are:
- Planning a surprise party
- Leaving a job
- Trying to escape an abusive relationship
- Famous
- Writing a detective novel
- A writer without a publisher
- Searching about an embarrassing medical condition
- Having a crush in someone
- In the closet
- A teenager with controlling parents
- Having a hobby that's considered embarrassing or childish
- Having a psycho stalker
- Buying a present from Santa
- A reporter who doesn't want to reveal their sources
- Buying a toilet and you don't want toilet recommendations for the rest of your life
- Lending your computer to someone, and you don't want your recommended videos to change
- Under an NDA
... Or maybe you're talking with someone who's in one of those categories.
We have to normalise privacy in order to keep these people safe. For instance, it's a stupid example but it works, if I always use private browser windows, my husband won't suspect anything when I'm looking for a gift for him.
That's only the tip of the iceberg and it's not even touching some bigger problems:
- You can be profiled based on your likes, social media posts, purchase history, etc, and maybe used for election results manipulation, or who knows what else. That's not a conspiracy theory, it has happened, see for instance Cambridge Analytica.
- Maybe the political situation will change in the future. Oops, now your data is suddenly in the hands of a malicious dictator.
- If you keep a backdoor open to let the "good and trusted" actors in, there's no way to not let malicious actors in as well.