Thread

1. smalltorch · 1790858341 · focus · HN ↗

   I don't like this. I think about a year ago when there was a big push for chat control in the EU, almost like an instinct, I started working on ways to be more soverign with my data.

   I'm just a regular guy who really has nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean I need to be complacent with just allowing a future I don't like be propped up in front of my eyes.

   What I've come to realize is there is really no safer place for your data and communications than just your own home. At the very least, I would like a judge to review the evidence of my alledged wrong doing before the government can raid my castle and get what they need.

   Why do I, as a regular citizen feel the need to invoke and create my own protections on personal data and communications?

   There's something deep inside me that feels the need to be prepared for this odd future where the government feels they have the right to access everything. It's deeply troubling on many fronts.

   1. nekusar · 1790859250 · focus · HN ↗

      > I'm just a regular guy who really has nothing to hide

      Yeah, you do.

      Post your nudes.

      Post your full financial details.

      Post your whole medical history.

      Post every crime you might have committed, even as a juvenile.

      Post all your credit cards and bank account details.

      Hmmmm, so you ARE hiding those, eh? Quit framing this as "nothing to hide", because we ALL have things we hide... Not because they're illegal or anything, but because it protects us.

      1. smalltorch · 1790860280 · focus · HN ↗

         Sorry, but its not 'I have nothing to hide so who cares'...it's 'I have nothing to hide, and you also have absolutely no right to access my data and I will make that as hard as I possibly can.'

         This is different than arguing 'I have nothing to hide and also because of that you get free reign to everything'?

         But really, I don't take nudes cause why?, my financials are remarkably average, I have no medical history that I care about people knowing (broke my hand once), I've haven't broken any law's, I don't use credit cards...?

         That doesn't mean you are allowed to access my devices on whims, track my daily movements relentlessly.

         1. treyd · 1790861943 · focus · HN ↗

            So why does the government get to do all of those things? Especially when they've already demonstrated that they're not very good at using them to achieve the stated goal of improving security.
      2. swader999 · 1790863405 · focus · HN ↗

         Exactly and if they can't keep FBI data locked down how are they going to keep what they harvest from the plebes. You really want your insurer, landlord, employer, bank knowing all this?
      3. deltoidmaximus · 1790872838 · focus · HN ↗

         We live in a world where McDonald's is using AI to dynamically price hamburgers. Every piece of information about your life is something you might want to hide just to avoid being screwed over harder financially than you otherwise would.

         You medical history will be used to avoid hiring you to keep health insurance costs down, even if it's illegal. Your gambling or alcohol addiction will be used to target you with for gambling or alcohol advertisements even if they made that illegal. Your financial status will be used to mark up prices of things you need to buy, like how airlines used to show higher prices when you connected with an iPhone.

   2. rdm_blackhole · 1790860086 · focus · HN ↗

      > I'm just a regular guy who really has nothing to hide

      I think you are wrong. We all have things to hide.

      A joke between friends taken out of context. Your angry messages to a spouse or parent after a fight happened between you and them could be used out of context also. And what about your YouTube history and playlist or your web history...

      > just your own home

      Your home can be searched and all your devices at home can be seized as well. Granted it's probably a higher threshold than having everything on your phone but it's no a panacea either.

      1. smalltorch · 1790860862 · focus · HN ↗

         >Your home can be searched and all your devices at home can be seized as well.

         You need a warrant to search my home. That's my whole point. Warrantless access is the issue.

         Get a warrant, and I will happily show you anything you want. Nothing will be found because at the end of the tunnel, I actually have nothing to hide, I'm just a regular guy is my point.

         1. rdm_blackhole · 1790861148 · focus · HN ↗

            > You need a warrant to search my home.

            I agree that is why I said that it was higher threshold to get access to your data but warrants can be obtained for many different reasons and not always good ones either.

            All I am saying is that if they want your data, they'll get it. It's just easier at the border.

            1. smalltorch · 1790861745 · focus · HN ↗

               >All I am saying is that if they want your data, they'll get it. It's just easier at the border.

               That's fine, and I will do everything I can to make it as difficult as possible, not because I have something to hide at the end of the day, but because screw that what a terrible future to pass on to the next generation.

         2. IAmBroom · 1790867939 · focus · HN ↗

            You would do well to learn from Cardinal Richelieu's quote:

            "Give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, and I will find something in them which will hang him."

   3. 6DM · 1790862552 · focus · HN ↗

      I disagree with this framing. Privacy is never been about having something to hide. There's a big difference between having something to hide and it just not being someone else's business. It also implies a kind of light criminality imo.

      I don't hide my bank details it's just none of your business.

      This is me exercising personal control, preventing misuse and exploitation, and protecting the little dignity I have left this centry.

      1. smalltorch · 1790862894 · focus · HN ↗

         We are in alignment. I'm probably just not conveying it correctly.

         1. 6DM · 1790865822 · focus · HN ↗

            I figured, but I think it's worth pointing out.
   4. phendrenad2 · 1790865792 · focus · HN ↗

      This feeling is exactly what led to people leaving Europe to found what later became the United States. The Bill of Rights is basically a laundry list of things the King did to his servants - staging troops in their homes, rifling through their papers, stealing ideas, taking property without compensation, trying people in secret trials without a jury, trying people over and over until they got a conviction (or an acquittal if the accused was a friend of the King), levying huge bail amounts to prevent the accused from working so they would agree to plead guilty, CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT (one of the King's favorites), and laws being made/removed at the whim whenever they benefitted the King.

      All of that is coming back, probably. So enjoy that!

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