When the news broke about Cambridge Analytica harvesting and using the personal information of Facebook users, many people discovered for the first time how much data Facebook stores on users and to how many companies they sell that data. But does it really matter how much Facebook, Google, Amazon and others know about you, if you have done nothing wrong?
According to privacy expert Ignacio Cofone, it’s not always a matter of concealing wrongdoing. “Privacy is not about hiding, it’s about which flow of information is socially appropriate and which isn’t. This argument also obscures the target person. Nothing to hide from whom? There are things that you would share with your partner but not with strangers on the street.”
In his TED Talk, journalist Glenn Greenwald responds to those who say they have nothing to hide. “I always say the same thing to them,” said Greenwald. “I write down my email address and I say, ‘Email me the passwords to all of your email accounts. I want to read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you’re not a bad person, you should have nothing to hide.’”
The result of Greenwald’s experiment? “Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.”
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden points out that, “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”
New York Times technology writer Brian X. Chen downloaded his Facebook data and was astounded to discover that more than 500 advertisers had his contact information. Facebook even had his entire phone book, including the number to ring his apartment buzzer. He also downloaded information collected by Google and LinkedIn. His reaction: “Be warned: Once you see the vast amount of data that has been collected about you, you won’t be able to unsee it.”
And just as you can’t unsee what you have seen, it is impossible to put the data genie back in the bottle once your information is all over social media and elsewhere on the Internet. However, you can take steps starting now to safeguard your data. Consumer Reports suggests 66 ways to protect your privacy. Too much? They also offer a 10-minute privacy tune-up.
