In a nutshell, lack of privacy undermines the democratic process and the rule of law. Suppose someone wants to put a toxic waste dump in your neighborhood. You

In a nutshell, lack of privacy undermines the democratic process and the rule of law. Suppose someone wants to put a toxic waste dump in your neighborhood. You go around collecting signatures for a petition against it, but nobody will sign it. It seems they've all been informed that a friend or relative will lose his job if his prior drug conviction is disclosed, or will get sued into oblivion for having downloaded some copyright infringing material, unless of course the neighbor in question withdraws his opposition. You gather a few signatures nevertheless from people like you who have nothing to hide, but none of the politicians will touch it for similar reasons. In the end, policies get made for reasons unrelated to their legality or public interest at the behest of whoever controls the most personal information. Further examples are left as an exercise. Suppose the police want to conduct an investigation in a way that's technically illegal but they have an asset in the field who would be damaged by the disclosure of certain information. Suppose an ex-convict who has paid his debt to society according to the rule of law has his current whereabouts and the nature of his crime available as a matter of public record.