@ 5c8a5765:4fc5edee

# "Why do I care about privacy? I've got nothing to hide." But wait, maybe you are... *[Прочти на русском](https://habla.news/u/anarchist@nostrz.org/why-privacy)* <br> **tl;dr: Lack of privacy threatens sexual, racial, national minorities, women, men, non-binary, atheists, activists, the poor, the disabled, students, social workers, any customers, humans beings in general, and even democracy.**  <br><hr> ### **...Black?** Palentir, an artificial intelligence company, is selling proactive surveillance data to the LAPD to use traffic cameras for targeted racial profiling (searching exclusively black people for preventative crime investigations) [1]. If you've participated in BLM protests, the FBI is also grossly overstepping its authority for the sake of surveillance [52]. <br> ### **...Muslim?** Salaat First, an app that reminds Muslims of prayer times, sells user data to the FBI and ICE to constantly track users' locations [2]. Meanwhile, Muslim prisoners are tortured without trial at Guantanamo Bay [3]. <br> ### **...Atheist?** Evangelicals have begun using digital surveillance to track where "not yet converted" to Christianity are living [57]. <br> ### **...Queer?** Grindr sells users' location data [4]: the data sold has been used to fire gay priests [5]. According to the New York Post, they "allowed unknown third parties to learn sensitive information about users, including who they date, where they live and work, and where they spend their free time" [6]. The owners of Grind hastily put the service up for sale when it was revealed that it also collects users' medical data and shares it with other companies [7] (your medical data is worth 10-40 times more than your credit card data [8]). Not all transgender, non-binary, or intersex individuals would want to walk around with a "MY GENITALS DON'T MATCH THE GENDER" sign on their chest, but the lack of privacy gives you just that. By revealing your identity to anyone, you put your freedom (if being queer is illegal in your country) and life at risk. <br> ### **...AFAB?** Mobile geolocation tracking is being used by anti-abortion groups. Quote from Politico: "One advertising firm bragged in 2015 that it could 'tag all smartphones going in and out of nearly 700 Planned Parenthood clinics'" [9]. At the same time, as of 2022. 40% of the world had legal liability for abortion without extremely specific reasons [10]. It should also be remembered that some opponents of abortion are very militant: there is quite a bit of violence and even terrorism against abortion providers and abortionists [11][12]. <br> ### **...Activist?** Google gave Indian police the data of a 21-year-old climate activist who typed into Google Docs about farm protests (turned out to be arrested) [13]. Protonmail gave the data of an eco-activist* to the French police (turned out to be arrested) [14]. Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter) provide access to data to track activists (particularly non-white activists) — some of whom have not been uncooperative even after being exposed [15]. Our governments also have a strong interest in preventing protests before they even happen. <br> ### **...Noncomformist?** For example, if you're a conservative, you may find yourself under the boot of censorship: the company Gotcha SEO conducted a study of 50 controversial ("edgy") search queries on Google and found that only 5% of the results pertained to conservative sites, compared to 31.8% left-wing and 63.8% neutral [16][17]. In my personal experience (especially felt while writing this article), Google, Bing and other search engines from big companies (compared to, for example, Brave Search) are also reluctant to produce results on the topic of big companies selling your personal information. <br> ### **...Chinese?** In 2019, YouTube was caught automatically deleting comments that contained anything about "50 Cent (Party)" (China's "troll factory" — teams of people who flood social media comments with pro-state opinions for a small fee) [18], or accusing the Chinese Communist Party of banditry [19]. And then there's Tik Tok stealing your kids' data and selling it to your (Chinese) government [20]. And Google is also developing a special censored search engine specifically for China [21]. <br> ### **...A person with male gender in documents?** If your country has a military draft, with an overwhelming chance it will only be mandatory for males [22] (that's a discrimination). To send you to the army or to war, you will be tracked by phone, car movements [23], facial recognition cameras [24] and more. Evasion is punishable, up to and including prison and human rights violations [25][26]. <br> ### **...Anarchist?** Google Maps actively hides any images of protests and even poor living conditions [27]. Google Ads and Play Market remove opposition content at the request of the state (e.g. Russian) [28][29]. YouTube actively blocks channels and videos covering criticism of governments [30], protests [31], or torture by state [32] — especially in poor countries. (See also "activist?"). <br> ### **...Pro-Palestine?** Social media actively blocks pro-Palestinian viewpoints [33]. <br> ### **...Have a special health condition?** Pharmacies hand over your medical data to the police without a search warrant [34]. As mentioned, your medical data is worth 10-40 times more on the black market than your credit card data [8]. <br> ### **...Have ever bought anything?** Capitalism is one of the main dangers in selling your personal data. Many large companies use your information to estimate your income, sell you products you don't really need [36][37][38], or manipulate prices [37]. 1. For example, online retailers know that people with low income are more likely to make urgent purchases, so they set higher prices for them and cancel discounts [39][40]. 2. Some financial and insurance companies use social graphs to determine interest rates and insurance premiums. This often forces low-income people to pay more — this phenomenon is known as "poverty-premium" [41]. 3. Orbitz directs Mac users to more expensive hotels because they overpay for Apple electronics. [42]. 4. Target charges customer(s) higher prices when they were physically close to the store and unlikely to look for an alternative. [43] 5. McDonalds hired surveillance company Silverpush to link non-consensual audio data from its mobile app with audio from Youtube or television to show "relevant ads" across platforms. [44] There is no end to examples of sleazy sales pitches — and these are just the ones that have come to public knowledge! <br> ### **...Mom, Dad, Parent?** Parents Club Bounty fined £400,000 for selling user data — the company illegally transferred 34.4 million records to 39 companies [45]. Popular family safety app Life360 sells the precise location data of tens of millions of its users [46]. Would you trust your children's personal data and location to a stranger? After all, according to some reports, pedophiles [47] and kidnappers can use this data to find victims. <br> ### **...Working on a social profession?** Do you work as a politician, teacher, priest, curator, doctor, therapist or anyone else, so that your work causes you to hold a lot of vulnerable personal data of others for which you are responsible? You should be concerned about keeping them safe — after all, this data is being sold profitably [48]. <br> ### **...In a relationship?** Perhaps you'd like to keep the intimate details of your relationship private? In the most grotesque of news stories on the subject, an Australian border control officer returned a citizen's phone after a forced search at the airport with the words, "It was nice to see some good porn again," referring to nude photos of his girlfriend [49]. <br> ### **...Traveler?** The popular hotel chain AirBNB allows cameras inside its properties [56]. <br> ### **...Student?** Be vigilant: schools use tracking techniques to catch and severely penalize you for using vape (electronic cigarettes) [51]. <br> ### **...Driver?** Cars have become computers on wheels: they "have an unrivaled ability to watch, listen and gather information about what you are doing and where you are going" [55] [55]. This information is then shared or sold to data brokers, law enforcement, and others. Of the 25 car brands studied, 56% share your data with law enforcement in response to an informal request, and 84% share or sell your personal data [55]. Information is also willingly purchased by insurance companies [58], and even your partner(s) can use it to spy on you [59]. <br> ### **...Use technology to clean?** Robot vacuum cleaners not only suck up dust, but also scan your home [53]. As hard as it may be to believe, Amazon is actually using this data to make you more likely to buy things you don't need [54]. <br> ### **...Residen of a country with a democratic system?** There was a case not too long ago where Facebook was caught manipulating a major election: the company used our social graphs to distort our view of the real world and manipulate our votes [35]. <br> ### **...Citizen of a state?** In the context of the state, innocuous conversations can put you in danger, even if you have nothing to hide. One of the most shocking stories is the aforementioned experience of Mohamedou Ould Salahi [3], described in his memoirs and featured in the movie The Moorish Man. He was placed in the Guantanamo camp without trial and tortured there for 15 years for making a phone call to a relative in Afghanistan — he was suspected of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, although he had lived in Germany for the previous 10 years. Ordinary people are arrested and pressured for what they share online, even through their "anonymous" accounts, even in democracies, even if it was legal, even if you are not a man [50]. *"Give me six lines written by the most honest man, and I will find in them something for which he will be executed on the gallows" — Cardinal de Richelieu* <br> ### **...Human?** Why do you wear clothes? Why would you rather prefer an opaque toilet to a transparent one, or a bedroom without cameras to a monitored bedroom? Why might you not want to share your political views, sexual orientation, or gender identity with your grandmother, a teacher, or a police officer, even if you think there is nothing wrong with them? Why might you not want to share your social media gallery or passwords with your aunt, a social worker, or a 4chan user, even if you haven't done anything illegal directly? What if I offered to send your social media passwords, bank account passwords, your medical information, address, and photos to my email — **promise** I wouldn't use them for anything bad: I just want to keep them on my hard drive for the security of your own data? Do you really have nothing to hide? What if I told you that automated surveillance has reached such a scale that megacorporations can guess what you're *thinking* [60] about? Does that bother you? If so — I wouldn't be surprised. Privacy has always been a part of human life, a normal part of it. The way we live now is a highly unnatural state for humans; it has never been normal. You don't have to have something to hide to want to not share all the details of your personal life with others. <br><hr> ## Conclusion The longer we give up the fight for privacy rights, the more Leviathan gains momentum. Do you think Orwell's world of "1984" was built overnight? No! People sacrificed the rights to privacy, anonymity, freedom of information — step by step. And the first step towards dystopia is marginalizing people who worry about their anonymity: reducing them to "tinfoil hat wearers" and "those who really think that *THEY* is reading your emails." So what do we do? **We must not** think that "there's nothing we can do about it", or that "we've already lost". Instead, we need to: 1. Spread the word about why privacy is important, and why it's worth caring about; 2. Use private, free, decentralized analogs to popular services (e.g. Session instead of Telegram, NOSTR instead of Twitter, DuckDuckGo instead of Google); 3. Support the right to privacy for the sake of the rest (e.g., so far only a few people use private messengers — states know that those who use them are hiding something. But if half of the population starts using them, it will be impossible to single out anyone special); 4. Ask more often why companies know so much about us, and how is it even legal; 5. Participate in politics. Politics is not an "observation sport": if democracy doesn't work, we are responsible for making it work. The very top of such participation is supporting organizations fighting for privacy rights <br> *"Saying you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. But even if you don't enjoy a right at that particular moment, others may need it. And to say that you don't care about a right because you don't need it right now is the most antisocial thing you can do." — Edward Snowden* <hr> **Sources:** <br> [1] https://theintercept.com/2021/01/30/lapd-palantir-data-driven-policing/ <br> [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/03/aclu-seeks-release-records-data-us-collected-via-muslim-app-used-millions <br> [3] https://www.npr.org/2019/11/14/778944195/a-legacy-of-torture-is-preventing-trials-at-guant-namo <br> [4] https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/6/16/23762403/data-odni-report-wyden <br> [5] https://www.vox.com/recode/22587248/grindr-app-location-data-outed-priest-jeffrey-burrill-pillar-data-harvesting <br> [6] https://nypost.com/2022/05/02/grindr-sold-data-about-users-precise-locations-for-years-report/ <br> [7] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/03/grindr-shared-information-about-users-hiv-status-with-third-parties <br> [8] https://www.cyberpolicy.com/cybersecurity-education/why-medical-records-are-10-times-more-valuable-than-credit-card-info <br> [9] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/13/planned-parenthood-location-track-abortion-ads-00141172 <br> [10] "As of 2022, countries that legally allow abortion on request or for socioeconomic reasons comprise about 60% of the world's population", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_law <br> [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence <br> [12] https://www.justice.gov/crt/recent-cases-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers <br> [13] https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/disha-ravi-arrest-puts-privacy-of-all-google-india-users-in-doubt-1769772-2021-02-16 <br> [14] https://proton.me/blog/climate-activist-arrest <br> [15] https://www.aclunc.org/blog/facebook-instagram-and-twitter-provided-data-access-surveillance-product-marketed-target <br> [16] https://www.gotchseo.com/google-biased/ <br> [17] Google does quite a bit of censorship in its services in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google <br> [18] https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3933777 <br> [19] https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21270290/youtube-deleting-comments-censorship-chinese-communist-party-ccp <br> [20] https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898836158/class-action-lawsuit-claims-tiktok-steals-kids-data-and-sends-it-to-china <br> [21] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/technology/google-employees-protest-search-censored-china.html <br> [22] https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8F%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C <br> [23] https://focus.ua/voennye-novosti/626982-ot-doprosov-do-operativnyh-meropriyatij-v-nacpolicii-rasskazali-o-poiske-uklonistov <br> [24] https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-63346138 <br> [25] https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/styler/k-zaraz-karayut-uhilyantiv-vid-mobilizatsiyi-1707820307.html <br> [26] https://www.mrarchivist.com/results/entry/4591/; The prohibition of voting because a man has not registered to vote is contrary to Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. <br> [27] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17880969 <br> [28] https://www.rferl.org/a/google-reportedly-removes-navalny-ad-after-russian-government-complains/29478844.html <br> [29] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/17/apple-and-google-accused-of-political-censorship-over-alexei-navalny-app <br> [30] https://nordicmonitor.com/2023/09/google-youtube-accused-of-censoring-erdogan-critics/ <br> [31] https://www.medianama.com/2024/02/223-youtube-blocks-videos-protests-job-aspirants-bihar/ <br> [32] https://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/29/youtube.activist/ <br> [33] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/24/shadowbanning-are-social-media-giants-censoring-pro-palestine-voices <br> [34] https://thehill.com/business/4355894-pharmacies-sharing-medical-data-without-warrant/ <br> [35] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal <br> [36] https://usercentrics.com/knowledge-hub/data-is-the-new-gold-how-and-why-it-is-collected-and-sold/ <br> [37] https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/data-shared-sold-whats-done/ <br> [38] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/visa-wants-buy-plaid-and-it-transaction-data-millions-people <br> [39] https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/websites-that-charge-different-customers-different-prices.html <br> [40] https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/does-everyone-have-price-understanding-peoples-attitude-towards-online-and-offline <br> [41] https://fairbydesign.com/povertypremium <br> [42] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882 <br> [43] https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2019/02/01/report-targets-app-charges-higher-prices-to.html <br> [44] https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/silverpush-app-tracking-spying-use-rises-new/ <br> [45] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/12/parenting-club-bounty-fined-selling-users-data <br> [46] https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/12/06/the-popular-family-safety-app-life360-is-selling-precise-location-data-on-its-tens-of-millions-of-user <br> [47] https://www.the-sun.com/news/3740183/paedophile-snachat-maps-victims-tesco/ <br> [48] https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/heres-how-much-your-personal-information-is-selling-for-on-the-dark-web/ <br> [49] https://micky.com.au/aussie-ex-pat-will-never-return-after-digital-strip-search-reveals-sex-tapes/ <br> [50] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11282263/Moment-police-swoop-house-devout-catholic-mother-malicious-online-posts.html <br> [51] https://apnews.com/article/vaping-surveillance-technology-schools-982128348c683b9d54c7a307c5b1fdc6 <br> [52] https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/19/fbi-surveillance-black-lives-matter-protesters-00097924 <br> [53] https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/privacy/gathering-dust-and-data-how-robotic-vacuums-can-spy-on-you/ <br> [54] https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/amazons-irobot-deal-eu-antitrust-crosshairs-2023-07-06/ <br> [55] https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/ <br> [56] https://ru.airbnb.com/help/article/3061 <br> [57] https://newrepublic.com/article/179397/evangelical-app-targeting-immigrants-surveillance <br> [58] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html <br> [59] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/technology/car-trackers-gps-abuse.html <br> [60] https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-even-knows-what-youre-thinking/ **This does not mean that ProtonMail is insecure: the service regularly wins many court cases on the subject of disclosure of user data; it means that the use of ProtonMail was not private enough (in this case, without VPN/SPN/TOR).*