I Have Nothing To Hide

Jamie Zawinski links to a frightening response to a post on Reddit that offered the usual tripe about not caring about government surveillance because “I have nothing to hide.” The responder purports to be living in an Arab country that is “generally assumed to be a dictatorship.” He remarks that the purpose of surveillance is not to control terrorism but to control enemies of the state. That is, those who would destabilize the status quo.

He tells the fable of a young man who idealistically goes to a protest against inhumane farming practices and the consequences that follow. The story is certainly apocryphal but the poster insists that all the things he describes actually happened to friends of his. His final warning is that this is coming to a country near you regardless of how impossible it seems.

Perhaps this is alarmist. Perhaps not. One thing for sure, there is no reason to allow the government to assemble (or perhaps worse, maintain) a surveillance state. As the poster says, if this administration doesn’t use it for evil purposes, a future one will.

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