“If you aren’t doing anything wrong…”
by Devanshu Mehta
Everyone has heard of the classic defense of every violation of our privacy, of every move towards a police state:
“If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”
I hate that line, but there isn’t a comeback to it that is quite as cutting and apt. So here are many ideas from Bruce Schneier and, as an article, it is the perfect sledgehammer for that depressing slogan of the security over privacy brigade. From the article:
Some clever answers: “If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.” […] My problem with quips like these — as right as they are — is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.
Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? (“Who watches the watchers?”) and “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
He goes on:
How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? […] We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered.
This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. And it’s our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.
Read the entire article– it is fantastic. One of Schneier’s best.
Science Addiction 
Here is another come back, maybe not as important as the one above.
To which I would add – “so if you have nothing to hide then you have no problem with ME listening in on your conversations, right? So let me tap your phones and bug your house. YOU have nothing to hide. Or so you claim… hmmmm, I wonder.”
But there is also the end result of data mining. Read “IBM Holocaust” by Brian Carnell. And websites on the subject. It shows the result of average data mining in the hands of power hungry liars.
The number tatto’d on concentration camp prisoner’s had a reason and was a catalogue number so they knew who could do what. With IBM punch card computers they were able to access any prisoner they wanted to. A specialist in science, or labor, or whatever “special” talent they had they would send for them by number, knowing exactly where he was, send for him, retrieve him and force him one way or another (torture is ok in every fascist regime) to give information to help with planning or work on whatever the project was they were working on.
And all that started with data mining the trains and then the people, and then they found out who knew whom and how friendly they were with the jews.
And they all said the same thing we do… “Let ’em. I have nothing to hide. Our leaders say it’s only a limited program.”
So it’s all back loggueing the associations and patterns today so they can harvest it later when one of those numbers speaks out of line or opposes the Leader’s view of America.
It’s only temporary, as long as we’re fighting this war… the “Long” war, as they say. Only temporary, no worries š right? or left?
Who was it that said “Give me liberty or give me death!!!” ? I should have studied him more in grade school :s
see ya, I’m off to read the rest of this article.
bye