Crypto & Technology
Why Should I Care About Privacy? I Have Nothing to Hide.
Privacy is managing boundaries through control of personal data, handing you the keys to your mind’s gate.
“Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” — Edward Snowden
“Alexa, tell me a joke” sends a shudder through the intergalactic transmission web. Amazon servers bank the speech-to-text snippet. The algorithm belches a response after feasting on a data buffet where the Library of Congress is hors d’oeuvres and 90 million dinner conversations is the Rib-eye. The chronic, bone-deep privacy invasion by always-on location tracking, always-listening smart speakers, and always-watching surveillance cameras is a cliche of modern life: Who cares? Knowledge is power, and a data shared is a joke or a health tip earned.
“Privacy,” the term, needs a makeover. Privacy is not a smoke-screen to protect pedophiles who dredge the internet’s most despicable depths. It’s a shield for the anorexic teenager assailed with ads for weight-loss pills that dump gasoline on her burning anxieties. Privacy is managing boundaries through control of personal data, handing you the keys to your mind’s gate — stormed by social media, online news, and increasingly, physical devices.