On the importance of privacy
The other day I was having lunch with a friend and his wife. Somehow the discussion reached the subject of privacy, and I have yet again met with the ubiquitous claim:
Why should I care about my privacy? I have nothing to hide.
This is a tough one for me. I’m trying to answer this one the best I can, but it invariably portrays me as some kind of fanatic or zealot. The best answer I can come with to date is:
Because all this data about you is out there, and some day you will need this privacy - because you’ll get involved with the wrong person, your identity will be stolen, or even something will happen which you cannot envision today - and it will be impossible for you to control the vast amount of information about you that is constantly accumulated out there.
For some reason, this doesn’t work well with people. People have a hard time relating to a vague future. Is there a better way to get the idea across? The idea that if we do not do anything about our privacy it will be irretrievably gone?
