On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:15:11 -0700, Tracy Reed wrote:
On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 06:46:51AM PDT, Harvey Rothenberg spake
thusly:
You do not know how often that I hear this same comment, " When
talking to
colleagues about the threat to our privacy, the general view is , '
I'm not
doing anything illegal, so I don't have anything to worry about.'
This view
is wrong. " - I agree with you, but how do you educate the commenter
as to
why this is wrong ?
Some resources to help debunk this argument:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565
https://www.schneier.com/essay-114.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument
why do we have laws that make it illegal to find out what books someone
has checked out of the library or what videos someone has rented?
would you really be Ok with all your conversations with your Doctor
being public? or even all your medical records?
do you want your potential employers to be able to consider the fact
that you had an appointment with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist 10
years ago when they consider hiring you?
if not, why would you be willing to allow anyone to gather all this
information where it could be used as blackmail material against you?
something for the older folks, is there anything that you could have
said in the 40's or 50's (prior to the Civil Rights movement) that, if
quoted out of context, could harm you today?
As for the argument that if you aren't doing anything illegal then you
don't have anything to hide, one of the games that lawyers play over
beers is to pick some public figure and talk about the ways that that
person could be convicted, with the winner being the person who finds
the most obscure way to do so. Note that in this game, there is nobody
who could NOT be arrested (including Mother Teresa), it's just a matter
of what the most obscure, convoluted way to do so is.
So yes, everyone has done something illegal, in fact it can be argued
that the average professional commits 3 felonies per day
(http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx) so
everyone does have 'something to hide'
Also, it doesn't have to be you that has committed the crime. Do you
own a building or run a business? if so, it's possible for the
government to try and size your property because other people commit
crimes there ( see
http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/syndicated/piratical-feds-town-police-trying-to-take-couple-s-hotel/article_e2896a3a-a417-11e1-b594-0019bb2963f4.html
for an example, the feds lost this case, but they have won other
similar cases)
remember that Al Capone wasn't arrested for running a gang or any of
the nasty things his gang did, he was arrested for lying on his tax
forms.
If the government is out to get you, they can find a way to get you.
allowing them to gather every bit of information about you just makes
it easier for them to do so.
And as others have mentioned, it doesn't even need to be the government
that's doing this. If they gather the information about you, do you
really believe that this database will NOT end up being used by other
people? (authorized or not)
for that matter, even sending a mail like this one could be considered
'disloyal' to the government, and a similar thing in some parts of the
world, or even in America at some points in history could get me in
trouble (think McCarthyism, or Hoover's FBI)
David Lang
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