But I have nothing to hide.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sentiment that drives privacy advocates crazy and is a huge barrier that stops a lot of people from engaging with our movement. Here\u2019s the thing though: we, — advocates of privacy — are the ones that created this problem.<\/p>\n
Most of us talk about being for privacy, openness and transparency all in the same breath. We assume most people understand that the concept of privacy is meant to apply to individuals while transparency and openness is meant to apply to institutions. I don\u2019t think most people instinctively understand that distinction. <\/span><\/p>\n My hypothesis is that most people innately understand the value of transparency because of their experiences<\/span> witnessing government scandals or coverups, a classic example being around \u2018weapons of mass destruction.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n The problem with the classic refrain \u2018I have nothing to hide\u2019 is that people apply the value of transparency to <\/span>individuals<\/span><\/i> and as a result \u2018having nothing to hide\u2019 becomes a virtue. <\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things get even harder: we need to get better at explaining why privacy is important to individuals. The arguments, including \u2018it just is\u2019 or \u2018slippery slopes\u2019 or \u2018what if everyone could see everything\u2019 aren\u2019t working and in some ways reinforce the frame of \u2018I have nothing to hide.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s critical that we start talking about privacy in a way that is consistent with the concepts of openness and transparency but that can be applied to individuals and not institutions. \u00a0That is the idea that privacy <\/span>helps build authenticity. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n None of us are cardboard cutouts — we have contradictions, failings, and raw moments that are what make us fundamentally human. Privacy safeguards that. It ensures that you can separate challenging personal moments from your work life, so that you can develop ideas without fear. Privacy enables you to experiment with contrarian ideas when you\u2019re in your teens that help shape your politics without those ideas defining who you are in your 50s. <\/span><\/p>\n We put this theory into practice with the<\/span> first video of Mozilla\u2019s encryption campaign<\/span><\/a>. We — reframed privacy to be about <\/span>authenticity<\/span><\/i> — or in other words: letting you be you. <\/span><\/p>\n Love or hate the video, it\u2019s a first step in a longer conversation about why privacy is something that sets us free. Free from a world where no one can say anything other than tested sound bites and inane comments. Privacy is important because it helps us evolve as individuals, to reflect and to be authentic — and that is crucial in our increasingly digital world. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" But I have nothing to hide. It\u2019s a sentiment that drives privacy advocates crazy and is a huge barrier that stops a lot of people from engaging with our movement. Here\u2019s the thing though: we, — advocates of privacy — … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[327515],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foundation-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}