What to say to people who say this kinda of thing? Usually I just say “ok then”
Some variation of the below:
Can I have your phone with the messaging apps unlocked?
Can I log into your personal email?
Can I see your tax returns?
Can I set up cameras and microphones in your house?
Can I place a GPS tracker on your car?
It also works with opening up the info to anyone, not just you. That’s one of the key issues, even if a trusted party is accessing the info there’s a chance that a malicious party can get access too. Or the trusted party becomes malicious later (government changes, company changes hands, etc.)
People generally don’t want everything in their home live streamed 24/7. If anything it has the potential for abuse, like if someone knows when you’ll be out of home for a few hours
Insurance companies in some countries give you a discount if you agree to put a tracker on your car…
Or use their app on your phone, which will “detect your driving patterns” and adjust your rates accordingly.
But honestly, even without all that, modern cars already have trackers and Internet connections even without your knowledge. (Mine did a couple of impromptu OTA updates for the media center at the beginning. It also has an SOS button on the roof, which you need to be subscribed to use, but can activate the subscription through the button. This implies there is a GPS tracker, as well as a cellular connection).
Ask to watch them pee. When they say no, ask what they do when they pee that they don’t want you to know about; that is the only reason they could want privacy, right?
That’s not going to work. There’s no real data privacy breach there, and they’ll know that intuitively. People regularly and plainly excuse themselves to the bathroom. Nobody wants to be watched, but everyone knows what’s happening in there.
For someone who “does nothing wrong”, they need to be shown that “wrong” is subjective. Everyone knows you pee, but Amazon might fire you over it, so it becomes sensitive information in that context.
“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.” - Edward Snowden
“Okay, then hand me your phone unlocked and give me as much time as I want to poke around your browser history, files, and photos.”
Medical privacy is a great example.
Consider a situation like Texas right now where abortion went from a normal, legal thing to something that you can be fined and jailed for.
Would such a person be OK with the state having access to their medical records so they could jail or fine them?
People need to understand that much of privacy precautions are “layers” of security against “what if” scenarios that can sometimes be very real.
I usually ask them for their phone
That’s about all there is that we can say, some people just don’t care about their privacy until a blatant violation of it is right in front of their face, and nothing else except for that would ever make them care.
The energy is better spent on sharing info with people who want to do more for privacy, so that eventually it’s hopefully normalized to care about privacy.
even blatant violations dont matter, they will still use and do the same things without caring, that’s the fucked up part lol. I’ve seen this so many times.
“well, let me come over to your house uninvited and walk around the rooms looking through your personal belongings”.
We’re entitled to a reasonable amount of privacy, such as locks on our doors and curtains on our windows, why shouldn’t reasonable privacy also apply to our lives online?
That’s a choice they can make for themselves, not a choice tech companies and governments should make for everyone. If they want to trade their privacy, and I don’t - fine. All I want is the power to choose and know that choice will be respected.
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I have a friend / colleague who was a bit like this. It is a “see it to believe” situation. For her it was when she was at work and she watched her mouse stat moving on its own.
When she thought about how she never did anything bad on her work computer, but sometimes accessed her personal email… She got it.
And now she pays closer attention to things. Like in our city you’re pinged via WiFi when you get on a bus, but you can opt-out or jut turn of your WiFi, so she does that. And she makes email aliases now too. Nothing too serious, mind you, but she is 50 and figuring this out on her own and then teaching her friends and colleagues about it which is way better than going down the rabbit hole. Now there’s a bunch of boomers refusing to use Teams or access work email on their personal devices because she explained that they do have things to hide: the names and ages of their children and grandchildren, where they go for drinks after work, what they watch on YT, etc.
I don’t get into it with people though. People just write me off as some nerd, which is not the case.
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Depends on the person, but sometimes things such as:
“Is there anything you do, watch, listen to, say or have done in the past, which is currently illegal in another country?”
“Did you see how in the US, some states have just recently made abortion illegal, and in others, you can get in trouble with the police for wearing clothes which they don’t think match your birth gender? Both things were perfectly legal a few years ago”
“Imagine it’s 2024 and mandateless unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says model railways are offensive to motorists, so they’ve banned them”
“Do you think Facebook’s going to defend your privacy when the government makes model railways illegal, Dad?” :P
Tell them that they don’t deserve free speech either because obviously nothing of quality comes out of their mouth.
