"But I have nothing to hide, why should I care?"
The quote most often heard after folk hear about new surveillance and other privacy related issues. While true on the surface, there are subtexts underneath it that make it very untrue. A government is one critter that should never be 'against' its citizens. Regulations that provide methods for governmental snooping into your activities make it a lot easier to take that kind of stance.
Why 'I have nothing to hide' really isn't a good excuse:
If you have ever driven a car in a large city, you have, with 99.9% certainty, violated a speed-limit at least once. If you have ever had employment that didn't involve a W2 form, chances are really good that you violated a tax law (most likely through ignorance) somewhere. Trespassing laws are various and complex, and most people have been in technical violation of them at least once. Face it, we're all criminals. Selective enforcement of laws is one of the most evil forms of governmental harassment, and more data about your activities just makes it that much easier to do.
Especially the second one means that you really do have something to hide, even if you can't think of it right now.
If the Government actively suspects you of Doing Something Wrong, all of the petty infractions you used to get away with every day suddenly start to build a case against you. If the right kind of petty infraction occurs they now have a legal pretext to haul your ass into a holding cell to interview you at length. If they have enough proof of the petty infraction they can charge you with it, thus confirming your long-term reservation to the holding-cell-hotel, while they chase down all the other petty infractions and the one big infraction they suspect you of. It doesn't matter one whit if you did the big thing or not, they can hold you until they are satisfied that you didn't do it (or until the trial for your petty infraction comes up, you serve that sentence, and they still can't prove it and you are thus let out).
It is the second scenario that gets Libertarians up in arms. With the way our government has been heading lately, and especially in light of its treatment of people it suspects of doing terroristic Bad Things (or supporting same), the drive to give the government more data about the activities of citizens is one I am not comfortable with.
If you take any single voting-age citizen and review everything they have ever done in their life, you will get a list of broken laws. That list may have three things on it, or it may have sheets and sheets for a habitual speeder. This fact is what makes governmental over-enforcement the scary thing that it is. Felons already are denied the right to vote, and making it easier to make felons is a nickel-and-dime way to chip away the voting franchise.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," as the saying goes. Where 'sin' in this context is 'breaking a law', you get the idea of where we stand today.
Why 'I have nothing to hide' really isn't a good excuse:
- A lot of the data the government collects is public domain.
- Due to legal complexity, all citizens infringe on some laws some of the time.
If you have ever driven a car in a large city, you have, with 99.9% certainty, violated a speed-limit at least once. If you have ever had employment that didn't involve a W2 form, chances are really good that you violated a tax law (most likely through ignorance) somewhere. Trespassing laws are various and complex, and most people have been in technical violation of them at least once. Face it, we're all criminals. Selective enforcement of laws is one of the most evil forms of governmental harassment, and more data about your activities just makes it that much easier to do.
Especially the second one means that you really do have something to hide, even if you can't think of it right now.
If the Government actively suspects you of Doing Something Wrong, all of the petty infractions you used to get away with every day suddenly start to build a case against you. If the right kind of petty infraction occurs they now have a legal pretext to haul your ass into a holding cell to interview you at length. If they have enough proof of the petty infraction they can charge you with it, thus confirming your long-term reservation to the holding-cell-hotel, while they chase down all the other petty infractions and the one big infraction they suspect you of. It doesn't matter one whit if you did the big thing or not, they can hold you until they are satisfied that you didn't do it (or until the trial for your petty infraction comes up, you serve that sentence, and they still can't prove it and you are thus let out).
It is the second scenario that gets Libertarians up in arms. With the way our government has been heading lately, and especially in light of its treatment of people it suspects of doing terroristic Bad Things (or supporting same), the drive to give the government more data about the activities of citizens is one I am not comfortable with.
If you take any single voting-age citizen and review everything they have ever done in their life, you will get a list of broken laws. That list may have three things on it, or it may have sheets and sheets for a habitual speeder. This fact is what makes governmental over-enforcement the scary thing that it is. Felons already are denied the right to vote, and making it easier to make felons is a nickel-and-dime way to chip away the voting franchise.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," as the saying goes. Where 'sin' in this context is 'breaking a law', you get the idea of where we stand today.
posted by Corwin at 12:44 PM
0 comments
