Remix.run Logo
Terr_ 2 hours ago

> “I have nothing to hide” is the response is the response, which is not an argument — it’s a thought-terminating cliché that makes it socially awkward to point out that privacy is not about criminality, it’s about power. Whoever holds your behavioral data holds power over you. That’s true whether or not you’ve done anything wrong.

To put a slightly finer point on it for puncturing the cliche, "needing to hide" has a time-component. Everyone has something to hide from a potential future, whether they're good at predicting it or not.

I "have nothing to hide" about my religion today, but when if extremists seize power and declare "death to apostates", the exact same fact-pattern will very very much need hiding.

> The industry isn’t going to fix this. Every financial incentive points the other way.

Cory Doctorow has a hopeful--perhaps over-hopeful--idea that a disruptive wedge can be created, where a profit-motive will promote breaking the system of control. Specifically, that some place with a legal haven for tinkerers and wall-breakers will reap benefits from letting them openly sell device-unlockers, export-your-data tools, etc.