Privacy is no longer a social norm

A persistent argument emerging from this debate is none other than : « since I have nothing to hide, why would I be afraid of being monitored ? ».

Those who see things from the same angle, a bit narrow according to many people, start a process where they depreciate themselves. They have accepted the fact that they are harmless and uninteresting in the eyes of the State and thus don't care being monitored. However, History shows us that living under a moral imprisonment of arbitrary standards hurts our freedom.

In other words, it means surrendering our privacy rights. The same rights that are so valuable because we never know when we will need them. We have the right to call our family, send messages to our relatives or book a train ticket without constantly wondering what it will look like in the eyes of a government agent : nothing excludes a misinterpretation.

« We recognize that trusting anybody, any government authority, with the entirety of human communications in secret and without oversight is simply a too great temptation to be ignored »

(Edward Snowden)

It's easy to affirm those kind of things but our actions prove the exact opposite

One of the most striking examples illustrating the matter is none other than the famous statement Mark Zuckerberg made in 2010 « privacy is no longer a social norm » he said, while he and his wife bought a house as well as the adjacent homes for more than 30 million dollars just to dispose of a privacy area.

If you really have nothing to hide, would you give your real IDs ?

As Glenn Greenwald said : if I asked a hundred people to give me their e-mail adress as well as their password, how many would agree ? If they really have nothing to hide, it shouldn't be difficult for them to accept. In reality, we probably wouldn't even get a real e-mail adress. Even if some people affirm privacy is not a big deal for them, as a human being, we instinctively understand why it's so important to keep secrets.

« If you have nothing to hide, that means you are willing to let me photograph you naked. And I get full rights to that photograph, so I can show it to your neighbors »

(Anonymous)

Nobody wants to be monitored in his bedroom when the night comes. Everyday, we share certain information with people while we keep others for our family, our psychologist or our lawyer. We are social beings looking for relationships, and in that sense social networks are great socializing tools. However, to reach a fulfilled life, it's vital to have a private life out of range of the judgements of others. There is a reason for this need : we all have things to hide, not only terrorists or criminals do.

« The fact that there are people who are willing to and able to resist and be adversarial to those in power as dissidents and journalists and activists is something that brings us all collective good that we should want to preserve. Equally critical is that the measure of how free a society is is not how it treats its good, obedient, compliant citizens, but how it treats its dissidents and those who resist orthodoxy »

(Glenn Greenwald)

We make no compromises

Some of you might think it's actually possible to reconcile a relative security with privacy. For governments to be able to access encrypted information, they need the encryption keys. There is no such thing as half measures when it comes to information access, you either access or you don't. At blindeagle, we truly believe cryptography is a vector of freedom.

How can we bring two poles magnetically opposed closer ? We need to make a choice.

« To negotiate with that, we can’t lead with concessions, but rather with all the opposition we can muster »

(Moxie Marlinspike)

As Phil Zimmermann so rightly said : « if we want to resist this unsettling trend in the government to outlaw cryptography, one measure we can apply is to use cryptography as much as we can now while it's still legal. When use of strong cryptography becomes popular, it's harder for the government to criminalize it». Using blindeagle is a good method to safeguard democracy.

« If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy »

(Phil Zimmermann)

Finally

blindeagle and many other experts all around the world agree on the fact that hiding things is doubly beneficial.

On one hand, the individual will find his self-fulfillment in social relationships as well as in his private life.

And on the other hand, for the development of a free Internet where democracy makes perfect sense. Those two elements are based on an unbreakable and fail-proof encryption of your personal data. The phrase « I have nothing to hide » is therefore misunderstood by many people since it brings a sense of guilt instead of the right to privacy.

« It's not about having anything to hide : it's about things not being anyone else's business »

(Michael Kassner)