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Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

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Re: Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

#11

Post by giantg2 »

OneFunFellow wrote: post #2

A couple ideas: If you don't like privacy then you don't need curtains in your house. Ask them to unlock their phone and hand it to you. Most people will balk. One thing to think about is that some people don't mind losing their privacy to the government or a corporation but they do care about losing it to real humans that know them. As an example, if a husband is cheating on his wife he doesn't care if the NSA or Bi…

When it comes to government privacy, a good argument can be that you might trust the current people in government, but does the system offer enough protections to protect against future regimes? If you're talking to someone who didnt like Trump, there are probably examples of actions he took that they would consider to be abuses (and people on the other side would probably think the same about some Democeat leaders).

Re: Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

#12

Post by dave_sid »

patatino wrote: post #7
OneFunFellow wrote: post #2

A couple ideas: If you don't like privacy then you don't need curtains in your house. Ask them to unlock their phone and hand it to you. Most people will balk. One thing to think about is that some people don't mind losing their privacy to the government or a corporation but they do care about losing it to real humans that know them. As an example, if a husband is cheating on his wife he doesn't care if the NSA or Bi…

I find the curtains argument stupid. They look lovely, are sound-absorbing, and I'm not too fond of black windows at night, which mirror everything. Other than that, good points!

Another alternative to curtains are blinds which also help to block your reflection at night. However they’re not good at absorbing sound so you are probably right to stick with curtains.

Re: Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

#13

Post by dave_sid »

OneFunFellow wrote: post #2

A couple ideas: If you don't like privacy then you don't need curtains in your house. Ask them to unlock their phone and hand it to you. Most people will balk. One thing to think about is that some people don't mind losing their privacy to the government or a corporation but they do care about losing it to real humans that know them. As an example, if a husband is cheating on his wife he doesn't care if the NSA or Bi…

Another example is, if you don’t care about privacy then why post letters in envelopes.

This argument falls over when considering that people do actually send holiday postcards not in an envelope. Why are people so relaxed about their holiday data?

Re: Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

#14

Post by username90 »

Twitter has shown us that everyone has something to hide. You have had thoughts and said things that someone will find objectionable. If in the future as a part of the hiring process they got a packet of things you have said in private conversations in order to evaluate your culture fit, would you still feel you have nothing to hide?

Could be a service used by everyone similar to the current private run credit score system, could call it social score. It will be done at some point if laws doesn't make it illegal.

Re: Ask HN: Should you care about privacy policies if you have nothing to hide?

#15

Post by marcodiego »

I use an analogy whenever such an argument is used against me:

It is not about secrecy, it is about privacy. Consider what you do on the bathroom. Whatever you do there is almost never a secret, but it is private. If you close the door of your bathroom when you use it, you know the difference of secrecy and privacy.

Also you have to consider other people like activists who need privacy for many reasons include their own safety. When you ignore privacy right you are giving incentives for companies not to respect it. But people who use this right benefits everybody, even the ones who don't care about privacy.

Ignoring privacy because you don't need it is like saying free speech is not important because you have nothing to say.

It is important even if you don't care about it because the people who use this right will benefit you and everybody else.

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