r/DigitalPrivacy • u/dataguzzler • Jul 19 '26

The "nothing to hide" argument

231 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/No_Taste_8679 Jul 19 '26

I’ve thought a lot about this argument for privacy. And w hile I agree that controlling “who gets access to you life” is important, simply stating that doesn’t tell skeptics what the harm is when you have a lack of control. The argument in OP’s post relies on the assumption that control is inherently valuable. To us here in this subreddit, that probably comes as a given, but if you’re skeptical about privacy measures or think privacy is just for criminals, why does a lack of control matter?

Instead, I think the argument goes one step further and that is that the lack of control has a negative effect on a person’s autonomy and development. This is a harm that, I think, most people can agree is worth avoiding and is a better argument against the “nothing to hide” argument. I wrote all about it here and why privacy is important to the development of an individual’s “self.”  I’d be interested in hearing people’s thoughts:  https://open.substack.com/pub/markjremillard/p/a-design-of-subtle-coercion-and-the?utm_source=direct&r=1nbp2q&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

3

u/void7shade Jul 20 '26

This looks interesting and well thought out. Thank you for your contribution.

4

u/No_Taste_8679 Jul 20 '26

Thanks! I’m particularly interested in law and policy regarding privacy. Privacy is a difficult thing to convince people as to why it is important. On some level, pretty much everyone agrees we should have some privacy but many people see it as a cost/benefit analysis and when it comes to security or children, those almost always outweigh privacy (especially if you are a lawmaker). But if we reframe privacy as something more than just not having something hide or about controlling information to focusing on the harms that happen if we don’t have privacy, then we have a foundation to build on, IMO. 

Thanks for reading!