"I Don't Have Anything To Hide" . How A Video Changed My View On Privacy

Although I had always supported the anti-mass surveillance movement, it was just out of the feeling to do what seemed right. And not because I felt emotionally connected to the cause.

But that changed yesterday. And it should for everyone still in the passive state.

Glenn Greenwald, the popular editor who had access to Edward Snowden gave a TED talk on why everyone should be concerned about privacy.

I somehow found the transcript and I think that would do more justice to the matter.

Why the "I don't have anything to hide" excuse is shallow.

"Now, there's all kinds of things to say about that mentality, the first of which is that the people who say that, who say that privacy isn't really important, they don't actually believe it, and the way you know that they don't actually believe it is that while they say with their words that privacy doesn't matter, with their actions, they take all kinds of steps to safeguard their privacy. They put passwords on their email and their social media accounts, they put locks on their bedroom and bathroom doors, all steps designed to prevent other people from entering what they consider their private realm and knowing what it is that they don't want other people to know."

This is what the average citizen do.

Wait.

Even the ultra rich and powerful people feel this way too.

"The very same Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, ordered his employees at Google to cease speaking with the online Internet magazine CNET after CNET published an article full of personal, private information about Eric Schmidt, which it obtained exclusively through Google searches and using other Google products. (Laughter)

This same division can be seen with the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who in an infamous interview in 2010 pronounced that privacy is no longer a "social norm." Last year, Mark Zuckerberg and his new wife purchased not only their own house but also all four adjacent houses in Palo Alto for a total of 30 million dollars in order to ensure that they enjoyed a zone of privacy that prevented other people from monitoring what they do in their personal lives."

Hypocrisy?

This completely won me over.

*Over the last 16 months, as I've debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, "I don't really worry about invasions of privacy because I don't have anything to hide." I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide.

Not a single person has taken me up on that offer. I check and — I check that email account religiously all the time. It's a very desolate place. And there's a reason for that, which is that we as human beings, even those of us who in words disclaim the importance of our own privacy, instinctively understand the profound importance of it."*

I'm on the search for a reliable, affordable VPN now. :) Any recommendations?

A Quick Tip ( H.T to @tinfoilfedora )

Avoid VPNs from The Big Five eyes and the other 9 eyes.

https://www.privacytools.io/#ukusa