Whenever i talk to people about privacy, specifically my friends when i tell them why i switched to Signal and stopped using WhatsApp, i’m always met with people saying that i’m just making no sense and “why would you care so much if you have nothing to hide? I don’t care that meta sees that stuff” and some people are just so stubborn to understand that they might even settle on the “what would a billion dollar company want from me specifically?”. It makes me mad how people refuse to even consider alternatives and open their mind a bit. What do you think?

  • take6056@feddit.nl
    0·
    10 days ago

    The big perspective shift for me, is not that I feel obliged to privacy in public. It’s when the institution observing is so big and centralised that it becomes a power issue. I don’t care if you (the people) see all that I do in public, I have nothing to hide. I do care when your agenda is to see everything and gain power from it.

    • me some time ago
    • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      That is a good response. The problem is though they are also collecting data when we are in private. Look at what LG and I grantee you other smart TVs are doing.

  • blunket@lemmy.ml
    0·
    9 days ago

    I tell them privacy is a human right, that I don’t need to come up with justifications for why I don’t want to be exploited, and that you’re only conditioned not to care.

    If they don’t see my point then I say OK then.

    • B0rax@feddit.org
      0·
      10 days ago

      These are benign, ask them medical stuff, ask about which porn site they visit

  • myszka@lemmy.ml
    0·
    11 days ago

    Well, maybe they actually do have nothing to hide? I’ve recently realised that people who are dependent on Big Tech just don’t value their privacy the same way babies don’t care about being naked in front of other people. If you hand over the responsibility for your life to somebody else, you kind of hand over yourself, too, and there’s no point in seeking privacy anymore. So the actual issue is people’s passiveness and lack of agency in their interaction with tech. If they embrace FOSS, that is being a creator and not just a consumer in the world of software, they’ll start valuing their privacy, just like a teenager learning to be independent simultaneously develops the need for having their own boundaries.

  • fubarx@lemmy.world
    0·
    11 days ago

    A few points:

    • “I have nothing to hide,” means you’ve accepted the premise that the burden of innocence is on you. That you are guilty until proven innocent. There are a couple millenia of jurisprudence, saying ‘innocent until proven guilty’ should be the default. The US 5th, 6th, and 14th amendments get close, but they don’t just come out and say it.

    • “If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” This has been attributed to a few people from Cardinal Richelieu to Voltaire. But the crux is, anyone can make someone appear guilty. Doesn’t matter if you’re innocent. The burden of proof has to be on the accuser, otherwise it’s down to chaos, and tyrrany of the powerful and the mob.

    • Personal privacy by default is one of those fundamental rights that gives us control of a lot of things around us. From freely walking down the street, to our shopping habits, license-plate-readers, location-tracking, who we associate with, and our healthcare.

    • Imagine if the rules were changed so any time anyone wanted to use our data, including transactions, web and mobile interactions, credit-card, banking, voting, healthcare, whatever… they had to get explicit, single-use permission. How much weight would be lifted from everyone’s shoulder. It means you, the individual are in charge.

    • There’s academic data on the psychological effects of surveillance. It has actual effect on one’s behavior and mental health: https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae039/7920510

    • At this point, there are too many privacy leaks. The only reasonable solution is to flip it all on its head. EVERYTHING is private, unless there is a legitimate reason to pierce that veil, and the burden is on those wanting the data.

    It’ll have financial impacts on many business models. Yes, and? Do better.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    0·
    11 days ago

    I do have something to hide. I wear clothes, because I don’t want everybody to see my naked body. I keep my debit card hidden in my wallet, my keys to my car and house hidden in my pockets, my passwords are hidden in my password manager, my phone’s unlock code is a secret, my SSN is hidden on a card in a secure place in my house, which I also lock up securely. I close the stall door when I use the bathroom, I don’t walk around with my medical records taped to my back, I don’t tell people all the invasive dirty or violent thoughts that randomly pop into my head, and I don’t keep my car’s title in the front seat, nor my bank account and routing numbers written on my arm.

    And I would wager most other people are the same. All of those are completely legitimate things people have to hide, good reasons to keep them secret and locked away. It has nothing to do with being a criminal, or a sick pervert, or a domestic terrorist, or any of the other bullshit fake “explanations” for why people would value their privacy.

    And all that doesn’t even touch issues like systemic corporate or state oppression, data exploitation, or labor repression. It doesn’t touch things like fascist governments coming to power and deciding that certain opinions or expressions of speech are “subversive” and must be banned. How easily “nothing to hide” can become “domestic terrorism” when certain groups come into power.

    • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      See the clothes thing is stupid you also wear clothes to keep you warm, keep your body from damage. There are so many other reasons to wear clothes then hiding things.

  • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Theres a quote something along the lines of

    “I have nothing to hide; I simply don’t trust someone else’s version of justice." When they want to look though my things.

    Just because what you do in your home city is right and legal, doesnt mean it is when you travel, when other governments look at you, when other organizations target you. Nothing to hide just means the collective “they” have more on you specifically. Abortions are a perfect example. Get an abortion in a state that supports it, congrats your tried for murder in a state that doesnt. It doesnt matter that you had it in another place.

    Also whats legal now is not garenteed to be legal in the future. Your benign photo op 20 years ago can get you in big trouble. Or just shunned (gay marriage in some places).

    So yeah, its in your best interest to be annon.

  • yxc999@lemmy.ml
    0·
    10 days ago

    “So why do you wear clothes or don’t share your credit card details online?”

  • waterwasamistake@lemmy.zip
    0·
    10 days ago

    They don’t think they have anything to hide because they think of it as “evil activity”

    Reframe it, like sure you are not doing anything bad but these companies don’t care about criminal or evil behaviour. For them you are like livestock you only serve one purpose: making them money, there are no morals involved. They would sell your data to absolutely anyone for any reason! YOU can’t think of anything bad they could do with your data because YOU are not evil but THEY absolutely are. If an evil person wants your data you shouldn’t give it to them because they WILL find a way to use it against us, its a law of nature just like gravity.