Nothing to Hide

“Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey” (John Lennon)

We live in an age where just about everything we do, say, write, read, buy or sell is subject to various invasions of your right to privacy.

There are those who continually say, “I have nothing to hide. Only those who have something to hide worry about privacy.”

This is just a way of saying – “I’m better than you. If you weren’t a bad person, you’d have nothing to hide, like me!” But those of you who say you have nothing to hide things every day. We’re all human and we all do things in private that we wouldn’t do in public. If you’re a horrible singer and you sing in the shower, you’d feel violated if someone made a video of you singing in the shower – or dancing around singing in your kitchen. Are you doing something wrong? No. Would you care if someone posted a video of you singing in private on Facebook for everyone to see?

If you’re one who defends the governments’ rights to violate your privacy because you say you have nothing to hide, then you’re a hypocrite because you hide things you don’t want to be made public almost every day. You say you have nothing to hide but I bet you have locks on your doors and curtains on your windows because, regardless of what you say, you value your privacy and you don’t want your private space invaded.

Technology has advanced to point where we’re all subject to surveillance on the Internet, using our cell phones, walking down the street, driving our cars, or shopping at our favorite stores.

Those who say they have nothing to hide embolden the watchers – now many cities have stop light cams that started out taking pictures of the license plates of cars and now have been “upgraded” to taking photos not only the license plates but of the driver as well.

To argue this makes our streets safer is to argue that martial law makes our cities safer. Both may well be true, but at what cost?

You can’t go anywhere, type anything, view anything, buy anything, sell anything, email anything, or do anything on the Web without someone watching you. Assuming you use an ISP to access the Internet, your ISP, among others, keeps records of every site you visit, every word you type, everything you buy, every email you send – in short, just about anything and everything you do on the Web is logged by your ISP.

“I’m not doing anything wrong so I don’t care what my ISP keeps track of…” But you do, really. You care if your granddaughter’s photo including the metadata that could reveal her location down to the street name and city in which she lives. You care if someone finds out from a photo you innocently posted on Facebook identifies you with metadata that may expose to everyone with the knowledge to dissect metadata, what time the photo was taken, where it was taken, the date it was taken and even, if your camera is registered with the manufacturer, where you live. You have nothing to hide right? So you don’t care about any of these infringements on your right to privacy.

Those who claim they have nothing to hide embolden those who seek to track everyone, everywhere, all the time. At one time this would have been an absurd abstract because the technology to invade the privacy of individuals simply didn’t exist. That is no longer true.

Cameras are everywhere, your Internet connection is monitor, your Web browsing is being tracked and analyzed, and your cell phone call data is being recorded. You can be tracked by you cell phone unless you move around with battery removed. Cell phone calls can be intercepted and not just by goverments and authorities, but by anyone willing to pay for the moderate price.

You’re thinking I’ve gone conspiracy-theorist on you, off the deep end, wading into the twilight of paranoia, aren’t you.

I’m not. There are many people selling products that let ordinary citizens spy on your phone calls, your text messages, your emails, your passwords, your phone calls, your location, your chats and many other activities. And how much does a product like this cost? One product – FLEXISPY – is available to anyone willing to play $68 per month. If such a product is available to you, think how much more advanced the tools used by governments and authorities are.

As long as we have people saying, “I don’t care who spies on me; I’ve got nothing to hide.” it’s only going to get worse. Everyone has something to hide or some things they don’t want made public. No one wants anyone listening to their private phone calls even though they have nothing to hide. No one wants someone reading their private chats or text messages or emails whether or not they have something to hide. No one wants someone with binoculars peering into their homes, even though they’ve got nothing to hide, everyone has the right to privacy.

All this spying and intrigue made possible by technology is only going to get worse. And as long as the majority believes that their privacy does not matter because they’ve got nothing to hide, open the door to those who want to steal your privacy.

It’s bad enough already; I can’t imagine how things are going to be five years from now, ten years from now, or twenty years from now.

If you think allowing our privacy to be invaded to the degree it is today helps keep us safer, then how did the USA and its allies miss Isis? We’re now spending millions a day fighting Isis just to keep them at bay. But we were surprised by them, in spite of all the spy technology the U.S. and its allies possess. If invading the privacy of individuals ensures our security, then one has to wonder why we didn’t deal with Isis in its infancy, before it became a juggernaut; we have to wonder how the NSA, the U.S. government and all its allies, with all their spies and spying technology, missed stopping the biggest threat to our safety in a long time, before it became a serious threat to our safety, our way of life, not to mention the tenuous stability in the Middle East.

Everyone, even those who say they’ve nothing to hide, has a right to and an expectation of privacy.

After 9/11 the citizens of the USA gave up some freedoms willingly because the government and politicians convinced us we would be safer. We allowed these restrictions of some of our freedoms because we hoped they would make us safer.

U.S. Government requests for information about private Google services users are steadily increasing – they’re up over 120% this year over last, but Google is not giving the government everything it asks for without a fight.

The following excerpt is from an article which appeared on Betanews, written by Brian Fagioli, entitled: “Government requests at Google increase 120 percent — your privacy is under attack”

“While not all government requests are bad, it is still sad news that the number of requests have increased so dramatically. However, Google should be applauded for two things — transparency and “push back”. Educating users through transparency is the key to bringing this serious issue to light. Unfortunately, the company can only be as transparent as the law allows — the same governments that request the information, can also block Google from disclosing. This is a disgrace of justice and arguably an abuse of power.

Luckily though, Google is actively pushing back against broad requests. In other words, Google doesn’t just follow the governments mindlessly like a zombie. No, the search-giant is trying its hardest to combat this tyranny…”

The world is as it is today because we all sat back and let it happen. It didn’t matter enough to us to try to change the way things were and apparently it does not matter enough to us to try to change the way things are.

Now with technology advancing faster than at any other time in history, are we going to sit back and watch while the little privacy we have left is taken away from us because we have nothing to hide?

Benjamin Franklin said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Those  words appear in a letter widely presumed to be written by Franklin in 1755 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. Are you willing to give up your privacy and your liberties for a little temporary safety, or  because you have nothing to hide? Everyone has something to hide or we wouldn’t have curtains covering our windows or put locks on our doors. We’d give everyone who wanted to read our emails our email password. Everyone has something to hide. Whether what they’re hiding is evil or not, I’pretty certain that everyone has something to hide.

The next time you hear about someone’s privacy being violated, just remember that it could happen to you. And if things keep going like they are going, it’s going to happen to all of us and privacy will no longer be a right, it will be a privilege. And like most privileges it will not be a privilege that most of us will be allowed to enjoy; it will be reserved for the privileged few.

Maybe we have gone so deep into the darkness that there is nothing we can do? I don’know but I do know how things are, but i don’t know how we all sat back and let them get this way. The best we can do as individuals is be vigilant and do our best to resist any further invasions of privacy. One thing is for sure, we all need to start thinking more deeply than to rebuff all the privacy intrusions by saying we have nothing to hide. If we don’t start thinking more deeply than that, I fear what the future will bring.

We all have something to hide whether we admit it or not. Our privacy is being pillaged and raped and we all stand around watching it happen. And like lambs led to slaughter – we open not our mouths.