Ask HN: What's a good response to “It's fine, I've got nothing to hide online”?

"If you're not doing anything wrong in your living room, why draw the curtains?"

"We should save paper by sending people their bank statements on postcards. If you're not doing anything financially shady, you should be okay with the postman seeing it."

This exaggerates the downside of handing over lots of information to a third party to use however they please. But it points out the assumption that "I", whoever "I" happens to be, am somehow privileged above "them." It's remarkably easy for "I" to turn to "them."

There's a subtle difference between something you'd want to hide (because it could be incriminating) and something you don't want made public (because it could be embarrassing). I have nothing incriminating, but I have embarrassing stuff on my phone that I would rather nobody looked at.

A phone is an intensely personal device where a lot of your private data resides, and it can reveal a lot of intimate things about you and your relationship with others. Many people do understand this (at least at an instinctive level) and would balk at the idea of someone invasively reading all this stuff on their phone.

It's one I plan to use on airport security if they ever order me to decrypt my phone without a warrant.

    First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...