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This is a cool article. I like the narrative of "Change to a life where you are in control of your direction." I am probably the most privacy conscious person
by narush 5y ago
This is a cool article. I like the narrative of "Change to a life where you are in control of your direction."
I am probably the most privacy conscious person of my friends (not that I do a particularly good job of it), so I spent lots of time thinking about how to communicate about privacy in a way that is effective. [We're all mid-twenties, for context.] The main issue, I find, is that people just mostly don't care.
That being said, most of my friends do relate (and dislike) the loss of agency that comes with giving your brain to an algorithmic feed that decides what you eat. The narrative of "control your life and decisions" would be an effective piece of rhetoric, I think!
The other argument I've found really effective is one that convinced me after reading Edward Snowden's memoir Permanent Record. A sketch of the point:
Person 1: privacy matters.
Person 2: I don't care about privacy, because I don't have anything to hide.
Person 1: Historically, the folks who were hurt because of a lack of privacy weren't us (young professionals), but rather the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the Vietnam anti-war movement, etc. Privacy is about protecting those people who the government/institutions/etc already squash down.
It's an argument that comes from Permanent Record, pretty much, and I think for me it is the most compelling reason that I care about privacy! Not as much for myself (although that's nice), but mostly for the people that privacy protects who really need it.
In my experience, it goes over very well, as people can see that privacy isn't just about doomsday preppers not wanting anyone to know where they bury their gold, but rather about protecting those people who need/deserve/would benefit from protection!
P.S. I'd recommend reading Permanent Record. I was only 15 or so when all that stuff went down, and really didn't know anything about it except "Snowden good or bad idk," but the book is a fantastically interesting and well-written story. I think he's kinda awesome.
- ls65536 5y ago> Ignoring our own privacy, shouldn't we protect those people who the government/institutions/etc already squash down? And this should resonate even among the individualistic and self-interested who might believe they're unaffected, as those who aren't "squashed down" right now would be wise to not get caught in the thinking that the set of people affected today by certain state, corporate and institutional actions is immutable. "They would never do it to us" (along with the often heard "it could never happen here") is one of the most dangerous ways of discounting problems affecting "others" in the present. When you see people, either as individuals or as groups, being treated a certain way by those with greater power, remember that this could just as easily also be you in the future.
- Forgeties79 5y agoIt resonates with that crowd to a point. They don’t like it when it functions to protect people they don’t consider part of their tribe. Basically, it only resonates if it protects them, and they’re happy to sacrifice that if it means “the other guy” didn’t get anything. It’s hard to discuss mutual benefit with a group that believes everything is zero-sum.
- rapnie 5y agoExplaining social cooling might also work with your friends: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363
- dylan604 5y ago>Person 2: I don't care about privacy, because I don't have anything to hide. Because of this person's lack of caring, they don't realize that it's not just their privacy that they are sacrificing. By sharing their contacts, they just gave up all of the privacy of those people as well without so much as a hesitation of thought. The person who does care about privacy has 0 chance because of the careless actions of others.
- bdominy 5y agoThis is why I never give permission to apps to access my contacts. I wish Apple would have better protections than just a simple permission ask, when once granted, apps can do whatever they want with all of that data.
- nicolas_t 5y agoIt's what I hate about whatsapp, I have to use it so I have it installed on my phone but I have to jump through so many hoops to properly isolate it from my contacts. Unfortunately, I can't not have it, it's too entrenched because most people do not care about privacy.
- nocturnial 5y ago> the folks who were hurt because of a lack of privacy weren't us (young professionals), but rather the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the Vietnam anti-war movement In the second world war, the germans went into the municipal buildings, raided the census data and eliminated everyone who wrote the "wrong" religion in the census data. I think this is why Europeans care more about privacy than Americans. It's not only about why it should matter, but also it shouldn't be weaponized. (Don't take this seriously): Suppose your country was under attack and foreign troops invaded. They take you and say: "Well, well, it seems you're a javascript programmer according to your linkedin profile... We don't like javascript" That was WWII, privacy is also weaponized today. Rogue regimes will use whatever is put online to harass or even assassinate people in other countries.
- xenonite 5y agoAnd then it will be strange if someone suddenly cares about privacy. “There must be some reason.”