Ever thought, “Why should I care about online privacy? I have nothing to hide.” Read this https://www.socialcooling.com/

credit: [deleted] user on Reddit.

original link: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/savz9u/i_have_nothing_to_hide_why_should_i_care_about/

u/magicmulder

The main issue isn’t that someone would be interested in you personally but that data mining may put you in categories you don’t want to be in. 99.9% correlation of your „likes“ and follows to those of terror suspects - whoops you’re a terror suspect yourself. You follow heavy metal bands and Harley Davidson? Whoops, you have a 98% likelihood of drinking and smoking, up goes your insurance rate. And so on.

u/Mayayana

Indeed. But most people here seem to have misunderstood your post. One of my favorite examples is from Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, whoo said in an interview (on youtube) that if you think you have something to hide then maybe you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing. (Like maybe the Jews on Kristallnacht shouldn’t have been living in their houses?) Schmidt was later reported to have got an apartment in NYC without a doorman, to avoid gossip about his promiscuous lifestyle. :)

u/SandboxedCapybara

I always thought the like “no bathroom door,” “no curtains,” or “no free speech” arguments always fell flat when talking about privacy. Sure, as people who already care about privacy they make sense, but for people who don’t they are just such hollow arguments. I think a better argument is real life issues that people always face. The fact that things like their home address, social security number, face, email, phone number, passwords, their emails and texts, etc could be out there for anyone to see soon or may already be is almost always more concerning for people. People trust companies. People don’t trust people.

u/Striking-Implement52

Another good read: https://thenewoil.org/why.html ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy

etc

    • 7heo@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      The point is that you exist. A record of you therefore also does (hospital database/register, government registry, schools, various institutions, various companies, etc).

      No traces of you existing online don’t mean that data brokers don’t have your (other) data: identity, sex, age, etc.

      Those records, associated with no traces of you being online, can mean different things, but depending on your age, and potential social situation (both known or very reliably inferred from previously mentioned records), are pretty telling.

      And, as you say, at the end, there’s not much we can do. We need a wide, deep, and radical social awakening, leading to a complete change of most people’s relationship to “technology” (or, at least, what they call technology), for us to have any chance at reclaiming our data sovereignty. So, not to be pessimistic, but I don’t see this coming any time soon… 😩