{"id":1619,"date":"2015-07-16T12:06:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T19:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:16:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:16:21","slug":"useful-oneliners-to-defend-privacy-in-any-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/useful-oneliners-to-defend-privacy-in-any-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Useful Oneliners To Defend Privacy In Any Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s happened to all of us. We\u2019re asked why we bother defending our privacy, in a defeatist attitude \u2013 or worse, accused of having bad intentions when we\u2019re merely safeguarding our rights because nobody else is doing it for us. Here\u2019s a handful of useful retorts when somebody questions your right to privacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most people who question your fight for privacy \u2013 even your underlying right<\/em> to privacy \u2013 are just repeating clich\u00e9s and haven\u2019t really considered what they are saying. If they did think about what they were saying really means, they may be horrified. Alas, some people may need such a wake-up: privacy is a right that was hardwon, and one that is easily lost.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a few useful lines to drop into such conversations.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why do you encrypt your correspondence?<\/em>
\nTry responding:
\n\u2013 Why do you lock the door when you go to the bathroom?
\n(\u2013 But I haven\u2019t done anything wrong!)<\/em>
\n(\u2013 Right. There\u2019s nothing illegal going on in the bathroom, despite you locking the door. You probably just think you have a right to have that activity to yourself anyway. So do I.)<\/p>\n

\u2013 Why are you even bothering trying to protect your privacy? People are publishing everything anyway these days, there\u2019s no point in having laws to protect privacy any longer.<\/em>
\nTry responding:
\n\u2013 Because there\u2019s a crucial difference between something done with your consent, where you publish something willingly, and something forced upon you. Just because you published one paragraph from your private diary, that doesn\u2019t give anybody the right to go in and take all the rest of it by force. The net generation is much more aware of this than you would believe at first. I\u2019m sure you understand the concept of consent, yes?<\/p>\n

\u2013 Laws must be obeyed. The land is built on rule of law. The law must be able to be enforced!<\/em>
\nTry responding, with the risk of invoking Godwin and\/or quite a bit of shocked anger:
\n\u2013 So you would have turned in Anne Frank? She was a fugitive of the law of the land, you know. She was a criminal, and everybody who didn\u2019t report her was a criminal, too. Laws vary, and the only thing they have in common is that they\u2019re made to serve those in power at the moment. If you\u2019re leaning on the code of law to find ethical behavior, you\u2019re going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u2013 But think of all the terrorists! The government must be able to see what they do!<\/em>
\nTry responding:
\n\u2013 Yeah, imagine if we could get rid of all the terrorists. Imagine if we could make an experiment with that. Just imagine if we could split a land down the middle, and in one half, we had no unemployment at all, and barely any crime. In the other half, we had total runaway unemployment and rampant terrorism \u2013 the kind of terrorists that shoot innocent people, not the disagreeing peaceful protesters the government likes to call terrorists because it sounds like a bad word. Can you see this experiment? Good. Because it actually happened. They had to build a huge wall to keep people from moving to the side with<\/strong> crime, unemployment, and real terrorists. Eventually, they started shooting people who tried to jump the wall anyway. People were literally risking their lives to attempt a move to the half of the country with<\/strong> terrorism and unemployment. That wall came down in 1989. The lesson here is that the cure for terrorism is many, many times worse than terrorism itself \u2013 it is totalitarian repression, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re heading under a myriad of good excuses.<\/p>\n

\u2013 I don\u2019t have anything to hide, so I don\u2019t care about privacy.<\/em>
\nTry responding, in the paraphrased words of Edward Snowden:
\n\u2013 So I assume that when you have nothing to say, you don\u2019t care about freedom of speech, either.<\/p>\n

Sometimes people need to learn that clich\u00e9s aren\u2019t just blas\u00e9, they can actually be dangerous. This is one such area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s happened to all of us. We\u2019re asked why we bother defending our privacy, in a defeatist attitude \u2013 or worse, accused of having bad intentions when we\u2019re merely safeguarding our rights because nobody else is doing it for us. Here\u2019s a handful of useful retorts when somebody questions your right to privacy. Most people … Continue reading “Useful Oneliners To Defend Privacy In Any Discussion”<\/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-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nUseful Oneliners To Defend Privacy In Any Discussion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's happened to all of us. 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