Ask HN: Have you ever been hurt by a lack of privacy?
I've recently taken an interest in privacy and security. The two concepts seem bound. A lot of people seem freaked out that the government and corporations are monitoring everything. I'm not saying they shouldn't be freaked out. But I'm wondering specifically why are people freaked out? Are there material ways that this lack of privacy hurts people or is it more anticipation of future harm?
22 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 57.2 ms ] threadPlenty of people can look at my data and based on that take actions against my interests without me ever learning about it.
I've recently become more interested in privacy along with security and the experience was like some sort of awakening to all of these things happening around us that I've only vaguely been aware of. Some call it the matrix, I think. :-)
Unfortunately, he was never able to get a full time job again. He worked the rest of his career at a temporary agency. He was constantly close to getting a job but never got it.
Many years later it was discovered that the most likely reason he never got a job was likely because during the background search they found the suit and no company wants to deal with someone that they felt had a possibility of suing.
This was in the 90's. Now it's so much easier to find that info. and more. But you would never know about it and how it effect us.
I suggest you read a newspaper sometime. Every scenario you can imagine where personal data has been made public has occurred in real life, from immigration inspectors demanding to see social media accounts to police using your data to create "fake" bait sites.
Even YC reads applicants' HN posts during their evaluation process.
For example, avoiding social/professional media, i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn could have a material negative impact on your life.
In the safety of your own privacy, you can let go of common expectations. Being constantly recorded introduces a huge stressor, no matter how virtuous you are. You can't let go of past mistakes because other people certainly won't.
Lack of privacy in overcrowded prisons does kill people, mostly out of desperation. Convicts get extremely violent when their physical AND mental space is not respected. I believe privacy to be as important as any other needs after basic survival. http://www.npr.org/2016/03/24/470824303/doubling-up-prisoner...
> ...or is it more anticipation of future harm?
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." You're not human anymore, you're a walking narrative: a commie under McCarthy, a heretic in Renaissance Italy, a witch in 1597 Scotland, a queer in the Middle East. Ambitious people protect their privacy because they know anything can be turned against them. Authority lives and dies by mud-digging and scandals.
Its a fairly matter-of-fact description of the state of law at the time. (Note that that statement itself -- though Richelieu himself was in a privileged enough position to have no concern -- could easily have been an example of the effect it described, as it suggested both that the King's law was evil in condemning the honest, and that the King's law was capriciously enforced, either of which could be lèse-majesté.)
More broadly a lack of privacy creates risks for people like rape victims, people fleeing domestic abuse, the LGBT community, women's rights activists.
I'll pull a few links for the US, but remember, surveillance isn't just an issue in the US. Think about China and Russia.
http://time.com/2970573/muslim-american-nsa-spies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_lette...
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/how-su...
On the other hand, somebody collecting data about you always results in an uncertainty: The data is potentially stored indefinitely and you don't know where the data might end and who will use it (potentially for his benefit or against my interests) at any point in the future. There are examples of data collection even with a good intent that ended catastrophic. Currently some Turkish citizens and even academics and journalists fear that they might be arrested just for communicating with the "wrong" people in the past.
At least, you have always to assume that collecting of data, monitoring, thighter security and reduced privacy are never only "for good", especially not for the individuals, but more in the interest of government, corporations, political parties and so on. And you never can go back and demand that your data is deleted: The biggest problem is that you don't even know who stores what about you. Combine that with all the data that is collected about you every day: where is your phone located, whom do you call, mail, chat with, what internet pages are you visiting, what apps are you using and where, which photos are you sharing and where and when we're they made, what products are you looking for, which shops are you visiting, which terms are you googling, what are you posting to HN .... lots of reasons to freak out if all this data points fall in the wrong hands.
Google for something and Google will optimize future results to your known interests. That leads to a filter bubble showing you more and more customized search results. Are you hurt by this? Not knowingly, but perhaps you miss something important. Do most people know about this? Most likely not, so the collection of data leads to a skewed world view.