Why Privacy is a Basic Human Right
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has unfortunately confirmed the suspicions of many, and has made our previous warning on not over sharing even more important. You can read his appalling declarations on the loss of our personal privacy here. He basically says that Google will show anything that anyone posts anywhere about us, and we are solely responsible for whatever information they show on us.
This rationale by the CEO of the largest search engine on the web requires a response. First, I do recommend you start using another search engine instead of Google, since they record a lot of your activity. Asa Dotzler explains this further and surprisingly suggests Bing. (Google’s privacy policy is here, and here is Bing’s.)
Second do not ever over-share, it’s definitely better to be careful not sorry now. And finally, on the ethical, and philosophical reasons of why this loss of privacy is wrong, Bruce Schneier, a renowned security expert has written here a compelling argument on why we must defend, and demand privacy as basic human right. An argument I fully agree with and share an excerpt here:
Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance…
For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness…
This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. And it’s our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
