Cory Doctorow: Why we should care about privacy [View all]

[Newsjock]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/columns/83635-cory-doctorow-privacy-oversharing-and-government-surveillance.html

... When it comes to government surveillance, politicians are quick to tell us that the innocent need fear nothing from involuntary disclosure. However, it must be remembered that privacy isn’t secrecy. I may know what you do in the toilet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to close the door.

There is no doubt that you should be very concerned about government proposals in this regard. There are, in fact, multiple reasons why you should care about your privacy.

You should care about privacy because if the data says you’ve done something wrong, then the person reading the data will interpret everything else you do through that light. You should care about dragnet surveillance because it gives cops bigger haystacks with proportionately fewer needles. What we seek is for the authorities to do their jobs well, not simply suck up all the data they can in the hopes that it will be useful, someday.

You should care about surveillance because you all know people who can be compromised, socially, sexually or health-wise. And finally, you should care about surveillance because once the system for surveillance is built into the networks and the phones, bad guys (or dirty cops) can use it to attack you.