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If you don't mind me asking what is so important about privacy? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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What harm does public data have to you? Couldn't one just ignore the ads? You can't see anyone watching you, is public data good for public records? (I'm just curious). I know this sounds weird but is public data good for historical preservation and knowledge increasing the importance of the individual? And does public data lead to better products?

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[–] 14 points 3 years ago (1 child)

A lot of people are giving good examples, and good answers. But I want to make an analogy instead.

Let's think back to the time before the internet. 1970s. If somebody wanted to know everything about you they needed to stalk you. And that was very time-consuming. They needed to follow you everywhere you go, they needed to read all of your mail before you opened it, they needed to look through your trash, they needed to talk to all your friends to get all the information about you. Having a stalker was a serious time commitment from the stalker.

Fast forward to today, stalking is now trivial, and cheap. Thanks to new technology, data aggregation, and data brokers, every single person has a virtual stalker following them 24/7 who is dirt cheap for anybody to hire. So what would have been a crazy stalker in the 1970s can be used by anybody now to learn everything about you and do anything to you. That includes the police, that includes advertisers, that includes power tripping angry exs.

In the 1970s if you had a stalker you had a serious problem and people would help you stop the stalker. Even if the stalker did nothing illegal the fact that they were focusing so intensely on you would be enough for everyone to realize you're in a bad situation. Today that's the norm. So privacy is basically saying you don't want a 24/7 stalker for hire following specifically you.

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  • [+] -8 points 3 years ago*

    My favorite way of putting it:

    If you're walking into a business or public venue or something, and there was someone at the door who, as the cost of entry, asked you your name, birthday, street address, phone number, likes, dislikes, names of all relatives and friends, and all of the places you've recently visited....most people would feel incredibly uncomfortable, turn around, and walk away.

    Now imagine it's not a person or a venue, it's the Facebook sign up page. Why should you feel any less uncomfortable just because Mark Zuckerberg isn't standing next to you asking you these things directly?

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