[HN Gopher] 'I've got nothing to hide' and other misunderstandin...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       'I've got nothing to hide' and other misunderstandings of privacy
       (2007)
        
       Author : _____k
       Score  : 133 points
       Date   : 2023-08-13 18:23 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (papers.ssrn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (papers.ssrn.com)
        
       | cortic wrote:
       | Posted this three years ago, but its still relevant: My nothing
       | to hide argument;
       | 
       | Nothing to hide is an incomplete sentence. Nothing to hide from
       | who? Surely you want to hide your children from abusers and
       | predators? Don't you want to hide your banking details from con
       | artists and fraudsters? Your identity from identity thieves..
       | Your location from burglars, your car keys from car thieves or
       | your blood type from rich mobsters with kidney problems..
       | 
       | we don't know who are any of these things. So we should protect
       | ourselves from all of them, in effect we have everything to hide
       | from someone, and no idea who someone is.
       | 
       | edit; let me just add the obvious, that the government and
       | police, Google and Facebook, are made up of many someones.
        
         | ClumsyPilot wrote:
         | This is actually well phrased
         | 
         | Its often that we see something thats wrong, but we struggle to
         | express why. This does.
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | A murderer would like to hide their location history from civil
         | justice authorities. We often argue the cons but not the pros
         | of being able to trace history.
         | 
         | A lot of ongoing evidence is based on timestamped written
         | communication. Including for the 1/6 indictment, here you could
         | argue what constitutes as "right" or "wrong".
        
       | dataflow wrote:
       | "The argument that, _Hey, I don 't mind you listening to my phone
       | calls, I have nothing to hide_, is not an argument for this. You
       | don't know anybody who does this for a living claiming that
       | that's a good argument. It's a horrible argument. As Americans,
       | we deserve that private space."
       | 
       | - Former Director of National Intelligence (Michael Hayden):
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV2HDM86XgI&t=1h18s
        
       | alphanullmeric wrote:
       | Unless we're talking about financial privacy, in which case many
       | alleged privacy supporters will curiously switch sides and defend
       | KYC, transaction tracking and other ways of controlling other
       | people's wallets.
        
         | charlieyu1 wrote:
         | I don't defend KYC.
        
         | AnthonyMouse wrote:
         | A lot of people just defend the status quo no matter what it
         | is, and the arguments for why things are the way they are now
         | are what they teach in schools and even universities.
         | 
         | Most people also don't realize how ineffective KYC laws are.
         | Studies have shown that they just don't work. Small time
         | criminals use cash or barter, big time criminals infiltrate
         | banks or have ties to international criminal organizations with
         | their own shadow banking systems. It's just not a useful
         | requirement and the significant costs outweigh the negligible
         | benefits.
         | 
         | Creating a market for shadow banking systems is extra bad
         | because then the large criminal organizations get the bank's
         | margin which they can use to fund more criminal activity.
         | 
         | It's only then that we get to the privacy costs and chilling
         | effects of putting everything people buy in a database. And the
         | costs it imposes on marginalized populations. And the
         | destruction of value of any service that can't exist because it
         | would have to collect social security numbers from users or
         | otherwise impose high transaction costs on low margin
         | transactions.
         | 
         | I'm not entirely sure who the lobby for keeping them even is.
         | People who don't know how ineffective they are? Banks who want
         | to keep barriers to entry high? Just brute authoritarians who
         | want to spy on everyone every way they can?
        
         | YeBanKo wrote:
         | Did he somewhere defend KYC? I haven't heard anyone who defends
         | KYC except a bank teller and a scammy car salesman.
        
       | g105b wrote:
       | I also have nothing to hide, but I still choose to close my
       | curtains at night.
        
         | bemusedthrow75 wrote:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkZT_4vL_Y
         | 
         | What's he building in there?
         | 
         | What the hell is he building in there?
         | 
         | He has subscriptions to those magazines
         | 
         | He never waves when he goes by
         | 
         | He's hiding something from the rest of us
         | 
         | He's all to himself
         | 
         | I think I know why
        
       | philipov wrote:
       | To all those people that have nothing to hide, please provide me
       | with your bank account numbers and mother's maiden name.
        
         | elwell wrote:
         | The government can have that stuff of mine, but not just any
         | random person.
        
           | zlg_codes wrote:
           | Why trust an entity that has historically been proven to be
           | untrustworthy?
           | 
           | That's like getting punched by your bouncer and still
           | expecting him to be on your side.
        
       | chacham15 wrote:
       | The simplest retort I've heard to "I have nothing to hide" is
       | "then send me a nude photo of yourself." Theres nothing wrong
       | with nude bodies, but it is definitely private. I.e. privacy has
       | nothing to do with hiding wrong/illegal things.
       | 
       | (obligatory disclaimer: a little inaccuracy saves a lot of
       | explanation, but I think this gets the gist across)
        
         | wendyshu wrote:
         | Sure, where should I send it?
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | zvmaz wrote:
       | Remove privacy (from state and society) and you will live in
       | constant fear of being shunned, ostracized, persecuted. The
       | result is less individuality, less creativity, less exploration.
        
       | netfortius wrote:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10847842
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | I'm wondering: is there a good list of data privacy failure
       | consequences?
       | 
       | There are good lists of breaches but few describing what happened
       | to the people afterwards. Credit card theft resulting in a loss
       | being the most obvious one.
       | 
       | Such concrete (real) examples would help me to argue with people
       | who say: all this non-sense about data privacy. What would anyone
       | want to do with your data anyways?
        
         | Swizec wrote:
         | > I'm wondering: is there a good list of data privacy failure
         | consequences?
         | 
         | The ultimate example is how 1940's Germany used 1930's
         | Germany's census data. In 1933 it didn't seem so bad to tick a
         | box with your religious affiliation ...
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | The Netherlands as well. Dutch census religious affiliation
           | data were used by the imposed regime 1940--45.
           | 
           | Several Dutch officials enacted wholesale destruction of
           | those records as the occupation became obviously imminent,
           | which saved many, though the Jewish population of the
           | Netherlands fell from 154,887 in 1941 to 14,346 in 1947.
           | 
           | The point being it's not necessarily _your own_ government
           | you need be worried about.
           | 
           | In another variant on this, surveillance records kept by the
           | East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium fur
           | Staatssicherheit, a/k/a the Stasi) and Soviet KGB were
           | acquired by successor governments (unified German and post-
           | Soviet states including Ukraine). See:
           | <https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/unearthing-soviet-
           | sec...>
           | 
           | (I'm trying without success to find a reference to the
           | destruction of Dutch census records, though I'm pretty
           | certain this did actually happen.)
        
         | momirlan wrote:
         | ask them to share their email password
        
           | Karunamon wrote:
           | Not a useful argument; anyone making the "nothing to hide"
           | argument is implicitly arguing the trustworthiness (or the
           | low likelihood of a mistake impacting them) of the
           | state/justice system. You and other members of the general
           | public are not part of that.
           | 
           | This is also why the snippy "so you don't have (locks on your
           | doors/blinds on your windows/etc.)?" comeback does not work.
        
             | jaredhallen wrote:
             | Who makes up the state and justice system? Is it not
             | people?
        
             | ClumsyPilot wrote:
             | > "nothing to hide" argument is implicitly arguing the
             | trustworthiness (or the low likelihood of a mistake
             | impacting them) of the state/justice system
             | 
             | There is a massive assumption that only justice systen will
             | have access to this data. We know this data is sold to
             | anyone, even criminals.
        
         | pinguin3 wrote:
         | No list, but here's a non-US example
         | 
         | Torture, rape and imprisonment based on phone data (Belarus
         | 2022)
        
         | probably_wrong wrote:
         | I think location data is the best example.
         | 
         | First, you have those who stormed the Capitol and were
         | identified by the NYT based on their phones location [1]. You
         | also have the Substack that used location data to publicly out
         | a priest as gay [2].
         | 
         | You then have the companies selling location data of people who
         | visit abortion clinics [3]. They obtain this location from SDKs
         | that they deploy via apps you may already be using. And if you
         | want to get more dystopian remember that Texas allows citizens
         | to sue anyone for "aiding or abetting a post-heartbeat
         | abortion" [4], meaning that driving your friend Rebeca to a
         | clinic can land you in a lawsuit for at least $10k by people
         | who do this as their day job.
         | 
         | Even if you're not sued, remember that companies have been
         | reliably predicting whether you're pregnant for at least 10
         | years [5] and using it to influence your behavior in their
         | favor. This one may be the one with the "least bad"
         | consequences but, paradoxically, the one that better drives
         | home the point since nothing here is criminal.
         | 
         | [1] https://archive.is/r6c7b
         | 
         | [2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkbxp8/grindr-location-
         | data-...
         | 
         | [3] https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vzjb/location-data-
         | abortio...
         | 
         | [4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-abortion-law-bounty-
         | hunte...
         | 
         | [5] https://archive.is/Z4x2f
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | > Credit card theft resulting in a loss being the most obvious
         | one.
         | 
         | This seems more like a security than a privacy issue. The data
         | (credit card info) is not shared intentionally, but is leaked
         | due to a security hole.
        
           | dspillett wrote:
           | Credit card issues, and many other forms of fraud, can result
           | from identity theft which is both a security and privacy
           | issue.
        
           | maxbond wrote:
           | There isn't such a tight distinction between security and
           | privacy. Consider the Ashley Madison leak. I don't mean to
           | defend people who violate their SO's trust - that's
           | unconscionable - but clearly this was both a privacy and a
           | security issue, data was stolen and leaked which revealed
           | really intimate information which ruined people's lives.
        
         | kkfx wrote:
         | In mere privacy terms?
         | 
         | - a women start planning to have a child, her employer know
         | that, she got fired before the conception, legally;
         | 
         | - you are someone who know his/shes knows his rights, no jobs
         | for you since you are not easy to exploit;
         | 
         | - you have a certain political opinion, not nice toward the
         | present government? You'll got hard career and all possible
         | "issues", just like getting more traffic red lights than
         | someone else, more police checks causing delays and so on.
         | 
         | The list is long. The point is: we can't design a society like
         | a factory, we can't plan evolution beyond banal things, so we
         | need _noise_ , variability that nobody can master to ensure
         | nothing can last too much impeding further evolution just
         | because someone manage to grab a certain position of power and
         | do want to end the history to remain there forever in a loop.
         | That's why we need privacy, diversity, and so on.
        
           | baxtr wrote:
           | Thanks.
           | 
           | I was looking for real cases. Theory won't convince the nay-
           | sayers
        
             | antihipocrat wrote:
             | Real cases are everywhere, in front of everyone, every day.
             | For example:
             | 
             | Victims of domestic violence or stalking. Victims of
             | personal vendettas or bigotry from figures in authority.
             | Victims of exploitative employers. These victims have done
             | nothing wrong and they need privacy.
             | 
             | All kinds of people are randomly distributed throughout all
             | professions and strata of society. Politicians, police,
             | lawyers, doctors, posties, real estate agents, chefs. All
             | have great and terrible human representation.
             | 
             | Now think about a person you distrust/dislike the most in
             | your life. Would you want to give them access to everything
             | about you?
             | 
             | The type of person that you like least will eventually have
             | access to your information. If you don't protect your
             | privacy now, who will protect you then?
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | > Real cases are everywhere, in front of everyone, every
               | day
               | 
               | W He is looming to something that is well written and
               | convincing, something salient. Punchy
               | 
               | Your post is not that. it is difficult to express this so
               | wlel that it is irrefutable
        
             | pseingatl wrote:
             | Anecdotal evidence is the best evidence.
        
             | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
             | Well, I know that, not too long ago, employers were asking
             | prospective hires to give them their Facebook and Twitter
             | credentials. I'm talking full login credentials. Other ones
             | asked employees to friend them. I think a lot of HR
             | departments also required employees to friend HR people.
             | 
             | I'm pretty sure that's documented. The courts slammed that
             | drawer shut, pretty hard.
             | 
             | Something that might hit a little closer to home, here:
             | When I was still looking for work, about four or five years
             | ago, a couple of the companies asked me to tell them my HN
             | ID (I'm not sure if I had joined here, back then).
             | 
             | That's one of the reasons that I try to behave well, here.
             | I'm not looking for work, but a lot of y'all are. I try not
             | to propagate fights (although it can be tough), because the
             | person that _really_ gets harmed, is the one attacking me.
             | They are showing their ass, in front of potential employers
             | and teammates, and, even though I might not like them, I
             | don 't want to play a part in their not getting a job.
        
         | sacrosancty wrote:
         | [dead]
        
       | deepthunder wrote:
       | The problem with the "I've got nothing to hide" argument is it's
       | not "you" who decides what is "right" or "wrong". The entity
       | doing the "spying" determines what is right or wrong. "You" might
       | think "x" is ok, however the "spying" entity may have the
       | opposite view. And it is the "spying" entity's opinion that
       | matters, not yours, because it always them that have the power
       | and authority in determining what is "right" or "wrong".
       | Moreover, definitions change on what is "right" or "wrong".
        
         | kvdveer wrote:
         | Example: in the 1930, Dutch municipalities would record
         | ethnicity for their citizens. The argument was that ethnicity
         | wasn't something you'd need to hide, and it could be useful
         | should you need to identify yourself.
         | 
         | When in 1940 the German occupiers took over, those records
         | turned out to be very useful for their genocide.
        
           | tremon wrote:
           | _would record ethnicity_
           | 
           | *religious affiliation
           | 
           | It makes sense that ethnicity would have been recorded as
           | well, but FAFAIK the Germans mostly used the data on
           | religious identity (i.e. which persons were a member of which
           | church community).
        
             | _a_a_a_ wrote:
             | And that makes what difference exactly...?
        
         | belter wrote:
         | The main issue is the reversal of presumption of innocence.
         | Assuming privacy is only to hide wrongdoing...
        
         | Zetice wrote:
         | The real problem is that this argument relies on people
         | actually meaning "anything". It's a strawman that's so good,
         | you get people actually trying to argue it, but the real
         | argument isn't about absolute publicity of information, it's
         | about providing access to additional information as a means to
         | investigate wrongdoing. Very few people are practically
         | suggesting every single fact ought to be public about a person.
         | 
         | Besides, doomsaying that "anything could be illegal!" isn't
         | backed by anything real or lasting.
        
         | kypro wrote:
         | I completely agree with this.
         | 
         | I live in the UK and when I raise concerns about government
         | surveillance here people often say, "I've got nothing to hide".
         | 
         | I learnt of a case just this week where a guy on Reddit left a
         | slightly controversial comment and ended up being charged with
         | hate speech, lost his job and received hate abuse online for
         | his opinion.
         | 
         | It was kinda crazy because "all" he said was that didn't care
         | about a teen who died in police custody, specifically that this
         | teen was a, "good for nothing, spice smoking, Toxteth monkey"
         | (Toxteth being a fairly rough inner-city area of Liverpool).
         | 
         | The teen he was insulting was dead and unable to take offence,
         | but the police officer on Reddit at the time took offence and
         | decided to prosecute the guy anyway.
         | 
         | I'm bringing this up because I don't think most people in the
         | UK realise this. Insulting people online or just saying
         | something mildly offensive will often lead to prosecution. I
         | mean just this week an autistic child got arrested for calling
         | a lesbian police officer a lesbian here in the UK.
         | 
         | We all have something to hide when what's right and wrong is
         | this arbitrary.
         | 
         | Legal notes:
         | 
         | I do not agree with the views of the Redditor referenced in my
         | comment. I understand how someone may be offended by what he
         | said, but disagree specifically with it being an offence to
         | state an offensive position online.
         | 
         | I also do not agree with the behaviour autistic child mentioned
         | in my comment. I understand that being autistic is not an
         | excuse for being offensive. Again, I am only bringing this up
         | because I do not believe it should be an offence to offend.
         | 
         | The offensive language used in my comment were direct quotes
         | used specifically to make a point.
        
           | _a_a_a_ wrote:
           | > It was kinda crazy because "all" he said was that didn't
           | care about a teen who died in police custody, specifically
           | that this teen was a, "good for nothing, spice smoking,
           | Toxteth monkey"
           | 
           | "
           | 
           | Rowan O'Connell, 23, was hit with a fine by magistrates today
           | over the sick outbust following the death of Mzee, 18.
           | 
           | The teenager, described by his mother as a "gentle giant",
           | died after becoming unwell while detained by police officers
           | at Liverpool ONE in July.
           | 
           | O'Connell took to social media website Reddit, where he made
           | baseless allegations, labelling Mzee a "good for nothing,
           | spice smoking, Toxteth monkey".
           | 
           | He added: "As I say, who gives a f**."
           | 
           | "
           | 
           | https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/watch-
           | mo...
           | 
           | So, Not quite what you said.
           | 
           | > or just saying something mildly offensive will often lead
           | to prosecution
           | 
           | That's not mild, and you either know it or should know it.
           | 
           | > I mean just this week an autistic child got arrested for
           | calling a lesbian police officer a lesbian here in the UK.
           | 
           | No link eh? What a surprise.
           | 
           | ---
           | 
           | edit: this isn't about the rights/wrongs of what was said in
           | this case but your (deliberately?) incomplete description of
           | them. I actually share your concern about freedom of speech
           | but twisting facts doesn't build your case well.
        
             | dbsmith83 wrote:
             | > He added: "As I say, who gives a f***." (sic)
             | 
             | I don't understand your point. You both said the exact same
             | thing: "good for nothing, spice smoking, Toxteth monkey",
             | except you also said the guy added "Who gives a fuck?"
             | which basically means "who cares?". Does adding a "who
             | cares?" make the originally phrase much different?
        
             | edholland wrote:
             | Here's a link to the story about the autistic teen incident
             | 
             | https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/police-arrest-
             | autistic...
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | Would you agree murder is "wrong" and bad actors should be able
         | to hide their culpability?
        
       | anotherevan wrote:
       | "I need privacy, not because my actions are questionable, but
       | because your judgement and intentions are."
       | 
       | https://infosec.exchange/@itisiboller/109472911587284824
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | I'd like to save this quote. However Hackernews provides not
         | much functionality in-platform to do so.
         | 
         | Although I will contend the quote needs to be amended, since
         | this doesn't apply to agents whose actions and intentions _are_
         | questionable, and I would prefer they are not able to hide
         | them.
        
           | bondant wrote:
           | Well, you can add it to your favorite comments. Click the on
           | the date on the post and then click on favorite.
        
           | anotherevan wrote:
           | The link I provided is the original source, if you want to
           | bookmark that.
           | 
           | You can also click on the timestamp of a HN comment and get
           | the link just to that, if you prefer to bookmark that.
           | 
           | Or there's cut and paste. You have lots of options, it
           | doesn't need to be built in to every web site.
           | 
           | Regarding your suggested amendments, sorry, I have no control
           | over what Martin's daughter says.
        
       | ilyt wrote:
       | I found out that asking people that got "nothing to hide so
       | neither should you" to mount a video stream from their bedroom
       | shuts them up right quick.
        
         | elwell wrote:
         | I don't have anything to hide from a person I can trust.
        
           | logdap wrote:
           | [dead]
        
           | c-linkage wrote:
           | Correction: you don't have anything to hide from a person you
           | _believe_ you can trust.
           | 
           | That's how confidence schemes work.
        
           | tremon wrote:
           | So what you're saying is that you should be able to determine
           | yourself who you trust with information about yourself?
        
           | nulld3v wrote:
           | You may trust that the government has good intentions, but do
           | you trust that they properly secure all the information they
           | collect?
        
       | salad-tycoon wrote:
       | I've got plenty to hide, and I hide all my most prized things as
       | best as I can.
       | 
       | I enjoy obfuscating things s much as possible just to be a tiny
       | grain of sand of irritation in big data's crotch.
       | 
       | I'm also maybe a bit oppositionally defiant but I enjoy hiding my
       | shit. Why does anyone assume a right to know everyone's business?
        
         | someone321 wrote:
         | Can you elaborate what you exactly obfuscate ? Would be
         | interested in learning new privacy things.
        
           | jansan wrote:
           | > Can you elaborate what you exactly obfuscate ?
           | 
           | I would be very disappointed by grandparent if he/she
           | actually does that.
        
           | alaxapta7 wrote:
           | Not OP, but one thing I do is having a fake name on my
           | mailbox and doorbell. I figured my neighbours don't need to
           | know, and parcel services don't care. I don't legally live on
           | that address, so that helps.
           | 
           | I also try to keep my browser's headers more generic,
           | especially the Accept-Language header (not applicable or
           | particulary helpful for US residents, though). The rest (VPN,
           | [and therefore] no Google and no social networks) I wouldn't
           | consider an obfuscation.
        
       | TuringNYC wrote:
       | YOU: 'I've Got Nothing to Hide'
       | 
       | ME: Awesome, can you share your gmail and icloud passwords with
       | me?
        
         | elwell wrote:
         | YOU: Strawman argument
        
           | TuringNYC wrote:
           | ME: Logical conclusion
        
       | wizofaus wrote:
       | How many people actually believe the "nothing to hide" argument
       | though? I don't doubt some do, but I'm pretty sure most of the
       | pushback against privacy laws etc. comes from corporations who
       | stand to benefit from collecting and selling private information
       | about their customers. Though I will say some of the technical
       | challenges thrown up by some privacy laws are considerable, and
       | trying to comply to them (including being audited etc.) doesn't
       | often feel like the best use of resources.
        
       | tromp wrote:
       | Here's the first listed criticism of the saying on its Wikipedia
       | page [1], by none other than Edward Snowden:
       | 
       | > Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because
       | you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't
       | care about free speech because you have nothing to say.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument
        
         | glenstein wrote:
         | This one has confused me. A lot of the spirit of it I get
         | behind; I am similarly indignant at the nothing to hide
         | argument, I am similarly appreciative of the value of free
         | speech, and I appreciate the idea that you might hope that you
         | have "something to say", in the sense of having values, or ways
         | in which you are engaged in the world that are important and
         | meaningful to you. And I even understand and support the idea
         | that you are letting a beautiful right go unused if you have
         | "nothing to say."
         | 
         | But, with all of those elements in place, I don't see how they
         | serve to counter the "nothing to hide" argument. As other
         | commenters here have pointed out, and as the paper has pointed
         | out, it's (1) nothing to hide, from whom, and (2) just because
         | you believe your actions are innocent, doesn't mean your
         | information won't be used against you to target you.
         | 
         | But that's very different than the point that is apparently
         | being made about free speech. It may be a bummer to live a life
         | where you have nothing to say, but the failure implied by that
         | is of a different kind.
         | 
         | It may just be that I'm missing an obvious point, but, as far
         | as I can tell, if you have "nothing to say", the problem is
         | that you've resigned yourself to a life that doesn't assert any
         | values or meaning. Meanwhile, the nothing to hide problem
         | relates to not anticipating how bad actors will use your
         | information against you.
         | 
         | It _would_ be a 1:1 analogy if the point being made was, well,
         | you have no information? If you have nothing to hide because
         | you have no significant life attributes or life events, I can
         | see a way that is a criticism of an unfulfilled life, and
         | something that makes the comparison to free speech make sense.
         | But... it 's kind of lateral to the concerns about privacy that
         | I take to be the most essential to maintaining it as a right.
         | But again, I may just be missing something obvious.
        
         | the_lego wrote:
         | To elaborate: "nothing to hide" ignores the benefits to society
         | that others, who _do_ have something to hide, bring.
         | Whistleblowers, various lawyers, activists, investigative
         | journalists, labor organizers, etc.
         | 
         | Even if you have nothing to hide, you'll benefit immensely
         | when, e.g., people with something to hide reveal your leaders
         | are trying to goad you into a war under false pretenses.
         | 
         | To say nothing of how much the perspective changes if you live
         | in a place like Russia or China. Historically, times and places
         | where a good, honest person could bare their lives to the
         | government were few. How sure are you this period of _relative_
         | beneficence of our governments towards its citizens will last,
         | that you dare throw away yours and your children 's freedom on
         | the bet your future masters won't mean you harm?
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | I got through 16 pages of the article, and he hadn't gotten to
       | the point yet. He was summarizing previous articles he'd written.
       | I understand that he's trying to steelman the "nothing to hide"
       | argument, and has dispensed with the usual retorts (ably
       | summarized in this thread so far). I'd like to know what his real
       | response actually is. Did anybody get through the whole thing?
        
         | gcanyon wrote:
         | So much this. "I apologize for writing such a long essay; I did
         | not have time to write a shorter one."
         | 
         | This is probably too brief, but here's Claude's take on a
         | summary:
         | 
         | Here is a one page summary of the article "I've Got Nothing to
         | Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy by Daniel J.
         | Solove:
         | 
         | Solove argues that the "nothing to hide" argument, which
         | contends that there is no threat to privacy if a person has
         | nothing embarrassing or illegal to conceal, stems from a narrow
         | conception of privacy. He proposes a pluralistic framework for
         | understanding privacy, grounded in Wittgenstein's concept of
         | family resemblances. Privacy violations consist of a web of
         | related problems, not connected by a common element, but
         | resembling each other.
         | 
         | Solove's taxonomy of privacy problems includes four categories:
         | information collection, information processing, information
         | dissemination, and invasion. Harms include chilling effects,
         | power imbalances, breaches of confidentiality, and exclusion
         | from decision-making processes. Many privacy issues cause
         | structural problems rather than individual injuries.
         | 
         | The "nothing to hide" argument focuses too narrowly on
         | disclosure of secrets. It fails to account for contextual
         | integrity, social value in keeping promises of confidentiality,
         | dangers of aggregation, problems of exclusion, and difficulties
         | in rebutting predictive prophesies about one's behavior. The
         | debate should center on oversight and accountability
         | procedures, not whether certain government actions should be
         | allowed. In short, by conceptualizing privacy more
         | pluralistically, the deficiencies of the "nothing to hide"
         | argument become apparent.
        
       | chrisnight wrote:
       | Ever since Row v Wade was overturned, the method I've taken in
       | arguments is to point out the now blatantly existing cases of
       | misuse of private data to prosecute people. Many people know
       | about the news now about how people have been arrested and
       | convicted because of phone data that should have been private.
       | 
       | I haven't had this argument very often though, so so far there
       | aren't indications as to its effectiveness. We'll have to see how
       | it turns out.
        
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