Week 10 Learnings

Prepare yourself. This post is going to blow your mind. This week in my computer security class, we learned about Edward Snowden and information privacy. Now, I have always considered myself pretty savvy when it comes to the tech world and I try to keep my friends up to date on what I read in the news. But every time I tell them about how the government and corporations are collecting endless data on us and can basically watch our every move, no one seems to care. They always say “I’ve got nothing to hide. Doesn’t bother me.” This argument has always irritated me so much, but I’ve never been able to find the right words to express why this is such a poor argument. Well, in class, my professor gave me exactly the words I have been looking for. Quoting Edward Snowden, he said “Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say. Rights = power.” This is such a great way to express it. This isn’t an issue about what we have to hide, it’s about what we have to lose. It’s saying that we don’t matter as individuals, and that our rights don’t matter. Information privacy is a huge issue and more people should care about it, regardless of how interesting they think their lives are.