Why Privacy Matters

The NSA spying ordeal, UK destroying the Guardian's disk drives (useless as that was), and in general the US's and all the other Five Eyes nations' responses to the Snowden leaks is not merely "bad" -- it is outright evil.

Even if you don't mind nor care about the spying, or are bothered but not enough to do anything, I want to explain why it's such deep concern to me.  I recognize that I live in one of the safest places on the planet, am better off than the vast majority of the world, during the most prosperous and safest times in the whole of human history, and that there are hundreds of people in the world dying every day simply because they don't have clean drinking water.  This spying thing isn't the most pressing concern for most people.  I get that.  But for the "civilized" world, and those who aren't focused on more pressing concerns, this spying and the reaction of governments to it should be considered an egregious violation.  It is evil.  I have a big problem with it and you should too.

First, and least important, there's its (lack of) usefulness.  There's evidence showing that it's mostly useless, which is good because if it was REALLY effective, there might actually be merrit to saying we should just let it happen.  But that's not the case, and I point out the problems with that in another facebook post where I talk about the actual real world effectiveness of a 99% effective terrorist-finding algorithm... In short, terrorism is such a small problem that inconveniencing or harming people over finding and thwarting it does *significantly* more damage to innocent people than *actual terrorism*.

But let's forget about the uselessness and even the possibility that the spying and other anti-terrorism efforts do more harm than good.  Let's, for the moment, assume they do a little bit of net positive.  Now we can get closer to the heart of the issue, because the problem with all the spying is NOT its (lack of) effectiveness...

Maybe you are gay in Russia or large parts of Africa and the Middle East, and being found out means fines, imprisonment, or worse.  Maybe you are a political dissident, not even necessarily planning revolution or violence-- just trying to have an intelligent discussion about cause and effect and social policy and the possible merits of aspects of Communism in the USA in the 50's.

These are the main examples people give when defending privacy-- that the laws and morals of a place may not be ethical and that privacy is necessary because it protects people from injustice in unjust places.  This may be political climate, corruption of local powers (police, businesses, whatever), or it may simply be an individual who doesn't wish for his medical history or religious or political views to be known by the world, even if he's got nothing to hide from the powers that be.

But it goes a bit further.  You might not be a dissident or have anything to hide-- but the problem is that may not be true *in the future*.  Back to my 50s USA Communist example-- lets say you were advocating Communism in the 30s and that was all well and good, and heck in the wake of the Depression, many might have agreed with you.  Suddenly 20 years later you are before a judge as a possible threat to national security for something that you were never trying to hide.

But none of this is the real problem.

You read that right, none of that is the problem, not by a long shot.

The problem with the NSA scandal and the way it has been handled lies at the core of why privacy for individuals is so important: being spied upon fundamentally alters the way you think.  You begin to censor yourself without any coercion besides knowing that you are being watched.  The very thoughts you have and your reactions to them change.  The owner of Groklaw.net, who is shutting the site down, analogized it to having your home being broken into even if nothing was stolen.  Knowing a stranger had seen your family photos, riffled through your things, had been in your home-- had penetrated the very area that you go to in order to be safe... suddenly the world seems a lot scarier.

The same goes for your phone, e-mails, internet activity, et cetera.

You may not be planning a terrorist attack, but are still curious about how nuclear bombs work, because heck, it's kind of fascinating to think about a chain reaction of one molecule bombarding others and releasing energy and particles that continue bombarding and so forth.  Or you may want to write a story that involves a bomb and you want to get the details right.

Then you remember.  They are watching.  Merely typing in Google what you are about to type will almost certainly flag you somewhere.  You aren't doing anything wrong, but *They* don't know that.  Is it really worth getting on a database somewhere, potentially putting your family through an annoying situation?  Maybe bombs *aren't* that interesting.  Maybe your story *shouldn't* have that it in.

Suddenly, instead of being safe in your own person and in your own *MIND*, you have become a prisoner.  It's not overt.  You aren't getting rounded up.  Heck, YOU aren't even doing anything wrong, or at least not something that the government in your physical location *thinks* is wrong.  But still, that nagging feeling.  That little bit of anxiousness.

And that's just for people in FREE countries who are under the least authoritarian regimes in all of history.

This is why privacy for individuals is so so very important and worth protecting at heavy cost, and why transparency in institutions like businesses and governments is so so important and worth demanding and fighting for at even heavy cost.  Accountability and transparency so the individual knows what is going on and what to expect and that violations of laws and trust are rightly punishment-- those things are what allows the individual to be free.  Privacy for the individual and transparency of institutions are ends in themselves certainly-- they protect us in a *provable* and *verifiable* way that, but additionally, they are ends to even more important means-- they actually enable true and genuine freedom, both in terms of physical safety as well as psychological well being.

So what does it do to a citizen of the USA or the UK when the President goes on Leno and says no spying is occurring when we have hard data that says it is?  What does it make us think and feel when James Clapper and others outright lie to Congress and are not punished?  What does it do to us when the UK destroys the hard drives at the Guardian?  When Manning and Snowden and Assange are on trial or hunted?  When the Manning prosecutor is pushing for the death penalty for aiding the enemy?

This is why I am such a staunch advocate of utilizing encryption and other privacy tools.  It's not so much about "fuck the Man" (although, FUCK the Man!) as it is about trying to preserve freedom and safety, of my person and my mind, and also showing others how to preserve THEIR safety and peace of mind.  Privacy for the individual and transparency of institutions are not merely ends of themselves, they matter because actually being free is only possible with them.  And I'm grateful for people like Glenn Greenwald, who committed the egregious crime of domestic journalism.