I'm sure many of you have had some variation of the "I don't care about my privacy because I have nothing to hide!" conversation with other people.

ExtraFlauschig

@r_alb I mostly ask if they please could unlock their phone and hand it to me. If they really do, I start reading out messages from any installed app out loud.
Until now everyone stopped me at least at the point I started reading out loud their messages.
(Please don’t ever really read private messages of someone out loud without their consent)

Enola Knezevic

@r_alb I warn them that they're in for an unpleasant surprise. If that doesn't do it, I stop discussing privacy and any potentially sensitive subject with them.

Pam C

@r_alb Ask if they have curtains or blinds in their home, and will they remove them if they have nothing to hide. This is about the right to have control ovr your own life without everybody else wanting to be the village gossip.

Tiota Sram

@r_alb in the case of an extremely stubborn libertarian (haven't encountered such myself thankfully) I might resort to: "You know this info gets bundled and sold around. Why should I be forced to give it up for free?" This is a terrible argument that cedes a lot of ground that shouldn't be ceded, but it could work for some freaks I imagine.

I think I'm more likely to just ask "You trust the government? In 2026?!?"

nicolaottomano

@r_alb I always reply "you have nothing to hide NOW, but who knows if that nothing would be something in the future? Is your religion something to hide? After all, we (Italians) had laws to imprison, deport and kill people of a certain religion just 80 years ago."

серафими многоꙮчитїи

@r_alb time is the enemy: if you don't have privacy now, someone in the future can use it against you later. Let's say I am totally, 100% happy with the government of my country. I support some slightly controversial causes but I live in a democracy and I have a right to my opinions. In 10 years' time another government gets in and it turns out that support for legalising cannabis is support for drug barons, who are now defined as terrorists. Oops!

Orrrr I get tested for HIV as part of a visa requirement (multiple times). Obviously I trust the health service! Later on as part of a public/private partnership this information gets shared with my health insurer. They conclude that my lifestyle is riskier and hence costlier than it actually is. Oops!

It's not really about who you trust now, it's about having a reckless amount of trust in the future.

Sauerer 🐕🐕

@r_alb
If you have nothing to hide, why do you use sealed envelopes when you send letters?

Joe Vinegar

@r_alb "how about having a video camera in your bathroom active 24h/365d? no? if 24h is too much how about auto activated only when someone is in the bathroom? still too much exposure? what if it's available only to police? only good police you trust? no? or a judge? that you trust?"
if it's still "no" or there's still a lot of "it depends": how are your personal communication, mobility, purchase trail, political stance, relationships, emotional status LESS PRIVATE than your junk size and shape, or your crap?"

Tristram Brelstaff

@rysiek @r_alb The history of the 20th Century shows quite clearly that the bigger threat to human welfare is not terrorism but bad government.

dark_stang

@r_alb ask if you can see their credit cards and last year's full tax return.

sͧb̴ͫƸ̴gͬᵉ

@r_alb To freely paraphrase a swedish columnist at SvD:

”It’s not about having clean bedlinens,
it’s about not having other peoples dirty ass in my bed.”

Urzl

@r_alb "Show me your browser history, your emails and all of the texts on your phone. All of it."
"No"
"Then you *do* believe in privacy."

Kow

@r_alb neither did the immigrants in the US. Nor the Uyghurs recently in china. Nor the Jews in Germany.

Sailor Anarres

@r_alb the things that are "illegal" and need to be "hidden" are constaly changing what happens when your post calling Trump orange is now terrorism in a couple years

⠵⠻⠷⠕⠭ 🍥🍉⚪🌹

@r_alb In addition to the arguments about how it impacts the individual directly now or in the future I try to make the point that pervasive surveillance is corrosive to civil society and damages free societies in the long run which impoverishes the freedom we claim to enjoy.

Fynn

@r_alb I like this short and sweet one:

"Everybody knows what's going on in the bathroom - but we still close the door."

Caden

@r_alb as I live in the US, this argument has been more effective lately: whether something is worth hiding depends on whether it could be used against you. Some things like your credit card number, SSN, or home address are obviously dangerous to give to a malicious individual, but as we're seeing today, even information like your political affiliation could be used quite powerfully against you if known by your employer, ICE/CBP, etc., or companies who could sell it to them such as Amazon.

This doesn't always get people to start caring about their own privacy, but it usually works to get people to understand why a lot of people do care and even need to care about their privacy, which I think is a good first step.

It often helps to shift the narrative from "privacy only helps criminals" (which is a mentality too many people I've encountered have) to at least "lots of people need privacy but I don't think I do" and once they're there it's a lot easier

Geoff Mackenzie

@r_alb Edward Snowden said "Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say." I think it helps some people understand

Jacen

@r_alb privacy is also about protecting others. You could ask them if they seriously have no one worth protecting?

River

@r_alb haven't used this one yet, but I've recently been doing some research into the more direct ways data brokerage is being used, so here's a potential option that might be a bit more visceral to folks who see this all as very theoretical:

> Would you be willing to share your financial statements with Amazon before they decide what price to offer for a product? (Instacart is currently doing this)

> What about sharing those statements with a potential employer before you both decide on your salary, that way he can low-ball you based on how badly you need to take the job? (Uber is doing this, as are all the gig work nursing apps, except it's happening for *each shift* since there is no fixed wage on these apps)

This is (one of *many*) of the end results of privacy invasions allowing the data industry to thrive unregulated. It's being used to make very real and consequential decisions that effect you personally. And that's not to mention what would happen if an individual were able to find this data leaked somehow on the dark web.

Wandering Adventure Party

I'm sure many of you have had some variation of the "I don't care about my privacy because I have nothing to hide!" conversation with other people.