No Stupid Questions

Well, maybe you are:

• Planning a surprise party
• Leaving a job
• Trying to escape an abusive relationship
• Famous
• Writing a detective novel
• A writer without a publisher
• Searching about an embarrassing medical condition
• Having a crush in someone
• In the closet
• A teenager with controlling parents
• Having a hobby that's considered embarrassing or childish
• Having a psycho stalker
• Buying a present from Santa
• A reporter who doesn't want to reveal their sources
• Buying a toilet and you don't want toilet recommendations for the rest of your life
• Lending your computer to someone, and you don't want your recommended videos to change
• Under an NDA

... Or maybe you're talking with someone who's in one of those categories.

We have to normalise privacy in order to keep these people safe. For instance, it's a stupid example but it works, if I always use private browser windows, my husband won't suspect anything when I'm looking for a gift for him.

That's only the tip of the iceberg and it's not even touching some bigger problems:

• You can be profiled based on your likes, social media posts, purchase history, etc, and maybe used for election results manipulation, or who knows what else. That's not a conspiracy theory, it has happened, see for instance Cambridge Analytica.
• Maybe the political situation will change in the future. Oops, now your data is suddenly in the hands of a malicious dictator.
• If you keep a backdoor open to let the "good and trusted" actors in, there's no way to not let malicious actors in as well.

Look out, fascism is on the rise again.

Well, it's a bullshit argument. Do the "nothing to hide" people shit with all the doors and windows open or on a video stream? Do the "nothing to hide" people freely give out their bank details or nudes?

There is absolutely no reason to assume the government can be trusted to keep your private info private. If anything there is good reason to assume it won't be or it will be used against you. Maybe there is a leak or someone gets into power that shouldn't.

From a legal perspective it doesn't make any sense either. Political winds change governments and laws. Things you feel will always be legal may not be in the future. We could easily have a red scare 2.0 or get fascism in power.

Society changes as well. How many people are fucked over by online activity or picture from a decade ago? Lots of common social stances have not aged well. Crap kids say or document online will begin to affect them as an adult. Look at how some people target lgbt groups just for existing.

"I have nothing to hide."

Until regressives make normal shit illegal, as they often try to do.

Even if you have nothing to hide yourself (which, as other commenters said, is very unlikely), and can be certain you'll never have anything to hide ever (even less probable), there will be other people who do have something to hide. That does not mean they are evil (though some are) - maybe they are fighting for a cause, or maybe they are persecuted minorities, or maybe governments and/or powerful organizations will want to bring them harm.

These people, being mere humans, have some minor secrets in their past or present that can be signal-boosted by a malevolent agent to seriously hurt them, their reputation, and/or their social standing. And even if they did mange to obtain the level of sainthood that the have-noving-to-hide folks seem to possess - their perfectly normative personal information can still be used to dox them or retaliate against them in some other way.

If you care about these people and/or any cause they may be fighting for, then you don't want them to be the only ones who demand privacy. Because:

1. They will effectively be holding a big "I have something to hide" signs, being the only ones that opt to protect their privacy.
2. Governments and companies will have an easy job giving them very small privacy protection, if at all, since there will be no pressure from the general public for privacy protection.

This will make it much easier to persecute minorities and to retaliate against activists, making society as a whole much worse for everyone.

"ok show me your browser history. Let me see your text messages too while you're at it."

Ask to put a webcam in their bathroom. Privacy is a right and has nothing to do with having something to hide. That's like saying freedom of speech is not needed because you don't have anything smart to say.

Do you go around showing your grandma photos of your asshole? Like, during church and everything? Because if yes I wanna hang with your granny she sounds cool but that's beside the point.

Came across this one on Lemmy today, worth a read: https://technomagnus.vercel.app/posts/why-privacy-matters

Whether you have something to hide depends on those in power. The people in power now setting the rules won’t be the same in several years.

I mean take a look at what's happening in Russia (besides the war) - folks over there had nothing to hide until suddenly they had and quite a few people got a prison sentence for their posts, re-posts and likes made before the war. While Russia is quite an extreme case it's not the most extreme and you can sit on the "it won't happen to me/here" pills yet so thought those people.

Who decides what's "nothing" and what's "something"? Who decides what's "hidden" and what's "open"?

If you aren't actively in charge of what "nothing" is, you should be engaged in privacy. It's that simple.

That is like saying you have nothing to say, so don't need free speech rights

Do you shit with the bathroom door open? You don't mind if I watch you while you shit then, do you?

most are only worried about their passwords, banking apps and not much else.

Gee whiz, that sounds like something to hide!

Yeah, I'm not doing anything wrong. Thing is, I'm not the one who would be deciding if the things I'm doing are wrong. The people who would be deciding are determined to find fault with everyone.

It’s a service you’re providing to a company that they’re selling for profit but you’re not getting any compensation for. If you’re fine with that, that’s your right.

It is not even an argument, because it presumes that everything that is just or good should be open and transparent which is a false premise and undermines the current reality we live in.

"So you'll have no problem with me watching you poop then"

Do you have curtains in your house? Can I look at your income tax records and all purchases made on your visa and bank card?

"So you don't mind if I put a live Webcam in your shower?"

What I think about is that you may have nothing to hide but that doesn't mean your data can't be manipulated in the future by bad actors.

Ask the person telling you that to describe in detail the last time they were intimate with someone and their security information for their bank account. Then when they are confused and upset repeat "got nothing to hide nothing to fear right?"

"It makes your internet faster you dum."

-Me when someone asks "what all that stuff does?"