{"id":1326,"date":"2014-12-06T15:35:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T23:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:16:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:16:56","slug":"you-cant-have-consent-of-the-governed-without-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/you-cant-have-consent-of-the-governed-without-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Have Consent Of The Governed Without Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are still people questioning why we need privacy in the first place, considering it to be some kind of first-world superficial luxury at the individual level. But privacy is not an individual privilege, it is a fundamental collective right, and for very good reasons: without privacy, every other check and balance in society falls apart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the full scale of warrantless bulk surveillance unravels, some people are questioning why we need privacy anyway. It\u2019s a good question, one that must have a good answer. Fortunately, it has.<\/p>\n

Most people tend to see privacy as an individual luxury, rather than a collective benefit. But it goes far, far beyond being an individual luxury or an individual privilege: it is foundational to the concept of democracy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the concept of consent of the governed<\/i> for a minute. It is essentially the opposite of taxation without representation<\/i>, which caused the British colonies to revolt once and form the United States of America. What it means is that you agree \u2013 in some shape or form \u2013 to the style of government setting rules for your everyday life, and the people in that government.<\/p>\n

Consent of the governed can take many forms. One of the most common would be public, free, and fair elections. This assumes, of course, that people have the right to consent or dissent freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly 52 citizens failed the elections by giving the wrong answer on the ballot.\u201d \u2014 Presidente\u2019s aide in the game Tropico 5<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you note that \u201cconsent or dissent freely\u201d part? Guess what surveillance does?<\/p>\n

People involved with today\u2019s real-time surveillance have described it as \u201cbasically being able to see thoughts form in real-time in the monitored people\u201d. It used to be that surveillance only monitored conversations, the exchange<\/i> of ideas. With surveillance of the Internet, and thereby of searches, information lookups, cross-references, and drafts, governments are now able to monitor the formation<\/i> of ideas \u2013 far before they\u2019re communicated, if they ever are.<\/p>\n

I cannot overstate what a game-changer this is. It enables governments to hold citizens accountable for dissent \u2013 actually, even for considering<\/i> dissent, without communicating it to anybody.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t need to accountability by force; far more subtle mechanisms are available. You may lose that promotion in the public sector. Never get that job for the government. Or have your lease terminated on public housing. Then again, even that is visible: the worst would be a suspicion<\/i> that something like that might happen. The ghosts in the mind; the unseen fears. Once those have taken hold \u2013 and they do! \u2013 then consent of the governed is a fantasy, a delusion.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why there can\u2019t be surveillance at the idea-formation level; at the Internet level we have today. If there is, there is no consent of the governed \u2013 there can\u2019t<\/i> be. And by extension, there is no democracy, and therefore a society which will most likely end in a rather nasty upheaval.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Privacy remains your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are still people questioning why we need privacy in the first place, considering it to be some kind of first-world superficial luxury at the individual level. But privacy is not an individual privilege, it is a fundamental collective right, and for very good reasons: without privacy, every other check and balance in society falls … Continue reading “You Can’t Have Consent Of The Governed Without Privacy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nYou Can't Have Consent Of The Governed Without Privacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are still people questioning why we need privacy in the first place, considering it to be some kind of first-world superficial luxury at the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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