The notion of, "Well if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide".

[Parasondox]

So innocent and cute... until it's ready to tear you apart but it's SO FUCKING CUTE!!!

Innocent until proven otherwise, right? Well it's how it should be in the day and age. No one should be made to feel guilty if they have done nothing wrong or have no bad intentions. Actually, they may be a different subject but still linked to this one.

You have done nothing wrong, right?

HA HA

HA HA

HA HA HA

HA HA HA HA

HA HA.

Sweet. Well then, let me into your home and look through your things? What? You said you did nothing wrong so you have nothing to hide. Bad example. Okay.

*does a quick scroll*

Ahh, so you are in a relationship with someone of the same sex? Absolutely nothing wrong there and you aren't hiding it either. We are a deeply religious company and I am sorry to say but we disagree with your lifestyle and do not wish to employ you anymore. To us, homosexuality is a sin. It's a disease. It's wrong.

Oh, I see here you were once part of a protest/strike about our current governments plans and against the party entirely? Well then, it's not illegal for you to protest or strike, but anarchy could on your mind and can affect us.

Okay, they were a bit of an extreme example and I know a few users here will pick at them and assess them as if I was in school. OKAY MISS MCDERMOTT!! But I hope you see my point. Many have used the phrase,

Well if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide.

Maybe that's the case but do you trust the person who wants to see everything about you? Do you trust that they use that information against you in the future? Assume pre-crime through algorithms? Should you sacrifice your freedom for, what the government calls, your "safety".

Also, you may think what you do in life may not be wrong, but to someone else or other nations, it's wrong and illegal. Eg, homosexuality, personal views, criticism of government, etc.

Am I making any sense here?

 

[sageoftruth]

Look all you want. Just do it while I'm not around so I don't have to see your looks of revulsion when you stumble across some of my earlier fiction or my browser history.

Still, I get your point. Even though I'm comfortable with it, I can understand why others may not feel the same way, especially if they're distrustful of their current government.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Um...while this is true, it is rather obviously completely true, so I'm not seeing the discussion value myself, though I suppose you'll get some people who'll want to argue with you.

 

[Parasondox]

Am I making any sense here?

Barely. I feel like I'm getting your meaning despite what you've typed, not because of what you typed.

I dunno. It seems like every time you make a new topic, you get more nonsensical and harder to understand.

Besides that, yah, of course. It's a fairly common opinion that 'nothing wrong, nothing to hide' is bullshit. Not sure exactly what there is to discuss on that matter, unless you want someone to play devil's advocate?

Yeah, I admit, I am getting to old for this. You know, making internet threads of an meaning and full thought. I rather just view, comment, make light of a situation and have fun. Yep, discussion fatigue has hit me.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well that notion apply to me at work.
All I can say there has been some internal thief going on in the past and I ain't no thief. I've work in that store for few years now and it is still consider my first job therefore I ain't going to do anything that would tansit my CV.

 

[ThatOtherGirl]

I cannot begin to explain how much contempt I have for the idea. And I seem to be surrounded by people who embrace it wholeheartedly.

 

[Frission]

If you haven't been fucking Satan behind my back then you won't mind consenting to these paternity tests and having it broadcasted live to the entire country on the Muary Pauvich show, right?

Nevermind that most information gathered from this sort of this is remembered for future use, its just a violation of basic human dignity.

Heck, you don't even to be Satan. Everyone has something to hide and most of the time, it's for things that no one will care about, just small harmless embarrassing stuff, that I sure don't want some creep from a spy agency looking through.

Isn't this basic privacy 101? The only case the other side have a point is if it's a) law related. b) urgent. c) logical.

IE: let me look at your fridge to see if you store body parts in it.

Yeah, it's basic privacy.

The funny thing is that mass surveillance is less effective than targeted surveillance, since you drown in the information. It tears at the fabric of a democracy and it's expensive and not really effective.

Um...while this is true, it is rather obviously completely true, so I'm not seeing the discussion value myself, though I suppose you'll get some people who'll want to argue with you.

Apart from getting outraged, I don't really know where to go from there.

 

[Czann]

Technology will kill privacy someday. Mosquito sized drones will be everywhere. Then bacteria sized drones will be everywhere.

So better get accustomed with the idea.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Nevermind that most information gathered from this sort of this is remembered for future use, its just a violation of basic human dignity.

This is where I'm coming from on this topic.

I'm a black male who lives in the New York Tri-state area. Until recently, Stop and Frisk was a giant thing for me. I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, but I've known friends who were jumped so it's a big thing to have some sort of protection on me. Especially at late at night. It's not a gun or anything, but still, this area frowns on you trying to protect your life. They rather clean up the mess than let you have a chance to your own life.

But to whit, I've never been stopped and frisked. It happened so many times around me, though, that I lost count. Imagine trying to just make the train to work and a cop asks you to hold it there because you fit a description of someone who they should be suspicous about and that gives them the right to go through your things while everyone looks at you like you're some sort of criminal.

I've had plenty of people tell me that if you had nothing to hide, you shouldn't object to it. But there's a reason we have doors in our homes. Sex is natural, nudity is natural... Hell, what you like to read, see, or do is completely up to you. But it should be up to you if you want to share it or not.

It's bad enough to have authority illegally stop you and then go through your things, but it's completely another to have your fellow citizens who could have their own rights trampled on support such actions because they implicitly trust the cops (ignoring all the 'accidents' we have on video of late) and implicitly distrust you (because you're one of those wicked minorities).

 

[MCerberus]

The phrase is most commonly said by people who are actively engaged in finding something wrong, even if they need to make fanciful leaps of logic or use social norms, especially ones that are nowhere close to being majorative or universal. In this context, yes everyone has something to hide, because according to someone everyone has done something wrong.

Additionally, in the context of the internet: due to the conflux of laws applied and written by people who did not anticipate the scope and realities of the internet, we've all broken the law in some way. From clicking a link to an infringing video and not calling the cops to having your email brute-forced or keylogged and sending spam from it, you've technically broken the law. If you haven't done anything illegal on the net, you are rarer and less existent than footage of the unicorn races at the annual bigfoot reunion.

 

[happyninja42]

No I don't like the "yo have nothing to hide" mentality when it comes to why I should let you have access to my information. Whether it's illegal or not isn't the issue. The issue is I have a right to privacy, and you don't have a right to just snoop through my shit. You can just fuck off Mr. Nosey Person, I've done nothing wrong, you have no reason to suspect me, so why the fuck do you even want to look through my stuff? Oh, you think I'm somehow involved in this crime, but don't actually have any evidence? Well then you can fuck off until you actually get a court ordered warrant, giving you legal authority to look through my stuff. Until then, fuck off.

My boss actually said this about a year or so ago, when there was a lot of talk about how Snowden had revealed how the US Government was illegally snooping on our phone/internet traffic. He said something, and I'm paraphrasing a bit 'cause I don't recall exactly. "The only people upset by this, are criminals who have something to hide." Which pissed me off, because I'm not a criminal, and I have a big issue with unwarranted, blanket surveillance.

Bottom line, that kind of rationale is the refuge of the authoritarian minded, and controlling people of our society. They just don't seem to comprehend the concept of "It's none of your fucking business". They think they have a right to investigate anything, and they simply don't.

 

[Czann]

Technology will kill privacy someday. Mosquito sized drones will be everywhere. Then bacteria sized drones will be everywhere.

So better get accustomed with the idea.

Maybe, or maybe mosquito sized drones will be fighting other drones, running into nets and focused electrolasers. You're focusing on the bullets, without paying any attention to the armor or counter-sniper measures.

Indeed, I must admit I hadn't considered that.

It seems it will be a very profitable arms race. *scribbles, scribbles* *prepares investments*

 

[KissingSunlight]

Technology will kill privacy someday. Mosquito sized drones will be everywhere. Then bacteria sized drones will be everywhere.

So better get accustomed with the idea.

Privacy is already dead. (Insert the meme of Walter Cronkite announcing the death of JFK here.) Right now we are laboring under the illusion that our personal information is secure.

As for the expression, "If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide." My take on that thought is, "I have nothing to hide. Yet, I feel no obligation to share." "Share" is the key word why privacy is dead. We all voluntarily share information about ourselves everyday. It gets disseminated everywhere. So, it becomes suspicious when someone claim they won't share information about themselves because of privacy.

 

[mecegirl]

The only time I've heard this phrase and agreed with it is when the topic is bodycams for police. They would protection ct the good cops from false accusations and help catch the bad cops in the act. And really, anyone who has worked in retail or fast food has been tapped while at work by security cameras, so I'm sure cops can take it.

Any other context is absurd.

 

[Mister K]

Whenever a person tells you to reveal something because "If you did nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide" demand that they show you their full medical history, specifically gynecology and urology tests, even more specifically their veneral diseases history. Also demand them to publically announce all their sexual fetishes and reasons for hating their mother.

Or show them International Law Acts, for example Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although I doubt that these people know how to read.