Everyone who cares about privacy needs to have a response to this fallacy practiced and ready to go. The aim should be to convince skeptics that they too already have “things to hide”, or at least that they might show a bit of solidarity with the good guys who do.
Rhetorical questions can that be effective:
Money: How much did you make last month? Oh! That’s private, right.
Health: Would you be happy if your medical insurer could somehow get access to your browsing history? Hmm?
Politics: So you really are an open book with nothing to hide! Fine. What about whistleblowers, investigative journalists, dissidents, etc? If we’re all shouting “I have nothing to hide - be my guest, spy on me!”, how effective do you think they’re going to be at holding the powerful to account - on our behalf?
The last argument is the really powerful one, but unfortunately it’s pretty hard to pull off.
Everyone who cares about privacy needs to have a response to this fallacy practiced and ready to go. The aim should be to convince skeptics that they too already have “things to hide”, or at least that they might show a bit of solidarity with the good guys who do.
Rhetorical questions can that be effective:
The last argument is the really powerful one, but unfortunately it’s pretty hard to pull off.