Some variation of the below:
Can I have your phone with the messaging apps unlocked?
Can I log into your personal email?
Can I see your tax returns?
Can I set up cameras and microphones in your house?
Can I place a GPS tracker on your car?
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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It also works with opening up the info to anyone, not just you. That's one of the key issues, even if a trusted party is accessing the info there's a chance that a malicious party can get access too. Or the trusted party becomes malicious later (government changes, company changes hands, etc.)
People generally don't want everything in their home live streamed 24/7. If anything it has the potential for abuse, like if someone knows when you'll be out of home for a few hours
Insurance companies in some countries give you a discount if you agree to put a tracker on your car...
Or use their app on your phone, which will "detect your driving patterns" and adjust your rates accordingly.
But honestly, even without all that, modern cars already have trackers and Internet connections even without your knowledge. (Mine did a couple of impromptu OTA updates for the media center at the beginning. It also has an SOS button on the roof, which you need to be subscribed to use, but can activate the subscription through the button. This implies there is a GPS tracker, as well as a cellular connection).
Saying you don't need privacy because you have nothing to hide is the same as saying you don't need freedom of speech because you have nothing to say
How is Snowden so damn eloquent? He puts everything and anything I ever left here to shame
Because dude was a genius prodigy. Smart people talk the best words.
He definitely, genuinely has the best words
His book was a super great read.
I need to listen to it someday. Im kinda scared to take that pilly-of-a-reality-pill
"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." - Edward Snowden
Ask to watch them pee. When they say no, ask what they do when they pee that they don't want you to know about; that is the only reason they could want privacy, right?
Ask to watch them pee.
You went weird real quick.
Ask them to install a camera in their bathroom, and every room of their house.
After all, if they've got nothing to hide, they've got nothing to fear!
I always ask if they have a curtain. Why have one, when you have nothing to hide? It blocks the view, sunlight...
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"Okay, then hand me your phone unlocked and give me as much time as I want to poke around your browser history, files, and photos."
Medical privacy is a great example.
Consider a situation like Texas right now where abortion went from a normal, legal thing to something that you can be fined and jailed for.
Would such a person be OK with the state having access to their medical records so they could jail or fine them?
People need to understand that much of privacy precautions are "layers" of security against "what if" scenarios that can sometimes be very real.
"Sweet let me see your search history. I've always been curious what your taste in porn is"
"well, let me come over to your house uninvited and walk around the rooms looking through your personal belongings".
I take out a pad and pen, "what's your bank credentials? Also, your [social media] credentials? I won't use it against you. Promise. ... No? I thought you have nothing to hide?" I put the pad away, and hold out my hand, "let me see you phone. I want to look through your pictures and internet history. ... No again? Huh. I guess you do care about privacy."
I usually ask them for their phone
Giving up your right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is like giving up your freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.
Ask them if they poop with the door open.
I guess they think they have nothing to hide, because they don't know, or don't care about, how their own information can be used against them.
Because it doesn't happen in an obviously invasive manner, they don't think it's a big deal. It's harder to associate an abstract concept to actual value.
I usually ask them to hand me their phone while its unlocked and that really makes some people think. Its funny because at the same time i have so little to hide that the only reason i have a passeord on my phone is because it makes stealing it harder. But im not gonna hand my data some random company just to watch braindead 30 second videos.
That’s a choice they can make for themselves, not a choice tech companies and governments should make for everyone. If they want to trade their privacy, and I don’t - fine. All I want is the power to choose and know that choice will be respected.
I love the selfish/enmeshed subtle agenda to that. I will decide and since I believe I'm covered, I required everyone to be compelled into the same dragnet I bless with my consensual presence. We may all be fish but there's oxygen in heaven/the sky
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Gotta hit them with the "oh cool so let me see your phone and browsing history then"
Do you have curtains on your house? Why, if you have nothing to hide?
"To block the sunlight"
So you open them at night?
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We're entitled to a reasonable amount of privacy, such as locks on our doors and curtains on our windows, why shouldn't reasonable privacy also apply to our lives online?
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Depends on the person, but sometimes things such as:
"Is there anything you do, watch, listen to, say or have done in the past, which is currently illegal in another country?"
"Did you see how in the US, some states have just recently made abortion illegal, and in others, you can get in trouble with the police for wearing clothes which they don't think match your birth gender? Both things were perfectly legal a few years ago"
"Imagine it's 2024 and mandateless unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says model railways are offensive to motorists, so they've banned them"
"Do you think Facebook's going to defend your privacy when the government makes model railways illegal, Dad?" :P
Great and what if a dictatorship takes over and starts looking through historical data. This is a depressingly high possibility in my country.
But even going less extreme than that, what about just draconian surveillance laws. In my country they've already tried to ban VPNs fortunately they're technologically illiterate so they've been massively unsuccessful at that one. But what if they grow a collective brain?
Even though you're completely right, there are 2 issues.
Most people are status quo adherents. The threat, even a real threat, of a totalitarian dictatorship take over of their country won't ever be perceived as credible because in their mind "it's just not possible" (at least in western nations). Second issue is that most people don't understand, even in a post-Snowden world, what surveillance is actively being performed on them. A percent of a percent of smart phone users are even aware of what PRISM is, and most people don't understand how that information can be weaponized against them.
Getting people to care about privacy means educating people on how computers work. But we're about 40 to 50 years too late for that.
We all have something to hide
Well if you live in a democracy you should. It's not about your data alone, its everyone else's. It's social media company XYZ determining how each individual is going to vote, then, on election day sending all people on one side get out and vote messages, and sending people on the other side a tsunami of unrelated bs to make sure they don't know about the election. Or push a bunch of fakenews to make them feel both sides are the same and why even vote?
Do this in a couple key areas and you only need to hit a few tens of thousands of people to turn a presidential race.
We know it can be done because it already has been. If you live in a democracy you should care a good deal about privacy, even if you somehow have nothing to hide
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I say nothing. Not my businesses. Their data. their choice. Why should I criticize their decision?
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Depending on the context, I go full in:
Yes, nothing to hide and you are not the only one. Assurance companies have observed that people who masturbate are healthier. And based on your surf, you don't. So you have to pay more.
Now what do you want to do? Masturbate to pay less or ?
"Here's a pen and piece of paper. Why don't you write your username and passwords out for me."
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I would offer a suggestion "it's not that I have nothing to hide; it's that i have nothing i want you or anyone else to see".
Both may sound similar but in reality quite diffierent.
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It's not about secrecy. It's about privacy.
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