On Privacy & Freedom
It's the time of year in America where we pause to appreciate our freedom. In this post, I examine how privacy enables freedom and why we must protect it.
I was born and raised in the United States of America by a family who's been here so long that we're definitely not considered immigrants anymore (though my ancestry is largely European).
I will be among the first to admit that my country has problems, but I know there are many worse places. That's not to give us a pass on figuring our crap out, but more a pause to count my blessings and recognize my privilege. Relatively speaking, I was born into a position of immense wealth, safety, and freedom.
But my country - along with many others around the world - is at risk of losing many of the things that make us great. There are social, economic, cultural, and resource challenges facing nations around the globe. Some are serious, some are imaginary. But this is a privacy blog, so that's the issue I'm going to focus on.
It would be silly for me to claim that privacy is the most important of these issues, because all of these issues are intersectional and critical. But privacy is certainly an important issue, and unfortunately it's frequently downplayed or overlooked in this regard.
So this week - no matter where you are - let's take a moment to appreciate the intersection of privacy and freedom and remember why it's important to keep fighting for it.
A Quick Definition
For any of this to make sense, we have to start by defining privacy because too many people conflate it with other concepts.
There are a million ways to define privacy, but the best definition I've found is that privacy is about having control over your data and who you share it with.
Privacy is most often confused with anonymity, which is where people don't know your identity.
Despite being a public figure, I still have a large degree of privacy. I didn't have to share my face and voice with the internet, but I made that choice. I sometimes choose to share my rough location, what sort of activities I get up to, or pictures of my cats. But there are still many aspects of my life and details that I withhold.
That's privacy.
If I were to publish a blog post and you couldn't confidently determine that I wrote it, that would be anonymity. Even if I did post revealing information such as a location or activities, if you were unable to attribute it to me, it would be anonymous.
The Big Picture
The most basic argument for why privacy matters is because it's a human right, just like food, water, or education.
This was declared in Article 12 of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
But this is also enshrined in constitutions from countries around the world, including the United States, Germany, South Africa, India, Brazil, even Hungary, Russia, and China.
Edward Snowden once argued that rights are intrinsic, and rather than defending why you deserve your rights, someone has to justify why they get to take those rights away. This applies just as much to privacy as any other right.
Nobody needs to justify why they "need" a right: the burden of justification falls on the one seeking to infringe upon the right.
At a big picture level, privacy is one of the lifebloods of a functional democracy. This is a sentiment echoed by experts like former EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn, Oxford Professor Carissa Véliz, and privacy expert Naomi Brockwell.
Numerous studies have shown that people self-censor when they know they're under surveillance. To name just a few:
- 2013: PEN America survey: Mass surveillance causing self-censorship among writers
- 2014: Government Surveillance and Internet Search Behavior
- 2016: Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use
- 2022: The Chilling Effects of Digital Dataveillance: A Theoretical Model and an Empirical Research Agenda
- 2024: The Chilling Effects of Surveillance and Human Rights: Insights from Qualitative Research in Uganda and Zimbabwe
In a democratic society, privacy is what allows us to cast our votes, to peacefully protest, to organize for change, and more. When we're surveilled, we know that our activities might come back to haunt us even when we've done nothing illegal.
You can see the proof of this claim by examining how oppressive countries operated and continue to operate: the infamous secret police of multiple nations in the 20th century, the 111 kilometers (69 miles) worth of files the German Stasi kept on their citizens, the way oppressive countries pitted neighbors and loved ones against each other, the notorious Great Firewall of China, Russia's crackdown on VPNs and information censorship. The list goes on.
Wikipedia said it best:
[Mass surveillance] is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes.
Privacy is a critical part of being able to safely agitate for change. Some people are willing to be the face of a movement, to attach their name and sacrifice the safety of anonymity. However, some people shouldn't do that for any number of reasons like personal safety or safety of their families.
Everyone should have the right to decide how public they want to be, if at all.
Zooming In
Privacy is also critical to our personal lives.
On an individual level - much like voting and protesting - privacy allows us to explore new or opposing ideas without fear of reprisal. It's not uncommon for someone to entertain ideas or questions that their social group may not approve of like "am I gay?" or "do I still believe in God?"
Maybe at the end of your searching you'll decide you haven't changed, but in some cases even asking those questions can be grounds for social ostracization, which can be immeasurably damaging for some people.
For those of who do decide to change, the "right to be forgotten" (which has been largely lost due to the "permanent record" nature of surveillance capitalism) is an instrumental part of growing as a person.
Contributors to Wikimedia projects
The internet is rife with stories of people being "cancelled" for tweets, posts, or jokes (in the case of comedians) that they told literal decades ago, even if it's blatantly obvious that the person no longer holds those views. The modern panopticon is making it impossible to shed our old, outdated ideas and grow into new, better versions of ourselves.
Some more tangible examples include things like women who miscarried and were still hounded by pregnancy ads, or alcoholics attempting to be sober suffering the same fate.
A commonly overlooked argument is also that relationships require privacy. When we meet new people, we rarely share every single intimate detail of our lives. Likewise, we share differently with different people. I don't tell my boss about the time spent with my wife over the weekend - whether it was intimate or a fight.
Again, privacy is about having control over your data and deciding what you want to share and with who.
There are a million examples and reasons privacy is critical to individuals, but I'll end by highlighting the recently rising threat of surveillance pricing. This is where companies use the data they've collected about you - previously used for advertising - to now set personalized prices.
God bless the optimists who think this will be used for good things - like to know that you're a frugal person and offer you a discount. In reality this will unquestionably be used to make sure you pay the most you'd be willing to, even if the price would've been much lower without surveillance pricing. Maybe even raising prices before sending you a coupon so that you pay the same amount regardless.
The companies will always prioritize profits. Privacy now is directly impacting your wallet.
Matthew Chesnes (DAD, BE Antitrust I) and Ted Rosenbaum (Acting BE Director)
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Privacy and Freedom Are Indivisible
As I said at the start, many countries are facing a wide range of serious - sometimes existential - issues. Many countries are facing population crises, wealth inequality, and climate change, among many other challenges. I said that privacy isn't necessarily the single most important topic, but it remains under attack nonetheless.
Countries around the world are racing to introduce age verification at light speed, despite the fact that it doesn't work and comes with clear risks.
Likewise, countries are in a race to ban encryption under the false pretense of "stopping crime" despite no evidence that mass surveillance has ever resulted in any meaningful reduction of crime.
Not to mention we have completely deranged CEOs who think that valuing your rights means you endorse crime.
Life is complex, and we all strive to reduce harm. But most of the suggestions that put privacy on the chopping block are reductive, incomplete, and oversimplified. They make for good sound bites when re-election time comes around, but they won't actually fix anything.
As we pause this weekend in the US to consider our freedoms, I hope that we (and others around the world) will consider the values that make those freedoms possible and strive to protect them.
It's not too late to turn the tide.
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