John W. Dean
"I've got nothing to hide, so electronic surveillance doesn't bother me. To the contrary, I'm delighted that the Bush Administration is monitoring calls and electronic traffic on a massive scale, because catching terrorists is far more important that worrying about the government's listening to my phone calls, or reading my emails." So the argument goes. It is a powerful one that has seduced too many people.
Millions of Americans buy this logic, and in accepting it, believe they are doing the right thing for themselves, their family, and their friends, neighbors, community and country. They are sadly wrong. If you accept this argument, you have been badly fooled.
...."the problem with the nothing to hide argument is with its underlying assumption that privacy is about hiding bad things." He warns, "Agreeing with this assumption concedes far too much ground and leads to an unproductive discussion of information people would likely want or not want to hide." Solove's bottom line is that this argument "myopically views privacy as a form of concealment or secrecy."
The concept of "privacy" encompasses many ideas relating to the proper and improper use and abuse of information about people within society. Privacy protects information not only because it would cause others to think less of the person at issue, but also simply to give us all breathing room: "Society involves a great deal of friction," Solove writes, "and we are constantly clashing with each other. Part of what makes a society a good place in which to live is the extent to which it allows people freedom from the intrusiveness of others. A society without privacy protection would be suffocation, and it might not be a place in which most would want to live.".....
1 comment:
well, that is only part of the argument. Privacy from surveillance is also freedom from suspicion and from the need to constantly prove you are innocent. It also means that people are not collecting information about activities that are harmless to the public (adultery, homosexuality, picking your nose)and then twisting or revealing the information to damage you, usually politically. Freedom from surveillance means that no one has any handle on information that they can use to abuse their power, such as bosses (why the hell do they care if you have had a bankruptcy?) or landlords or competitors. In fact, businesses are supposed to be able to protect information in order to survive and compete, so why shouldn't individuals? And who watches the watchers?
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