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Comment on Data privacy: how to counter the "I have nothing to hide" argument?

I don’t think this works, because any sexual stuff they don’t think google / Mega Corp cares about. Which is true google doesn’t give a shit if you have sex without curtains, they only care if you are shopping for curtains.

And the rest of the questions only matter if you are running for office or something which again 99.9% aren’t, so they don’t give a shit.

I’m all for privacy, but the argument I have nothing to hide except bank account passwords etc is hard to argue with, when it comes to the average person, because the truth is that they don’t matter and most likely no-one cares about their specific data.

Most data is only valuable in mass, unless you’re being criminally investigated or something.

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porkrind3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Perhaps you never heard of the psychological targeting done for political purposes through the misuse of mass data. (Cambridge Analytics)

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rufus@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I think we’re talking about an abstract concept here. The example with the sex questions is more of a metaphor/image to make you remember there is stuff out there, we’d like to keep private. It’s not necessarily your main concern regarding google. Those are different things but way less graphic and more difficult to explain, so i went with this example.

only matter if you are running for office or something

You’re close to the category of people i described last. You don’t care for freedom. You don’t care your attention is guided by other people. Information that is shown to you is gated by algorithms. And their power to manipulate you comes from the knowledge they have about you.

no-one cares about their specific data

Au contraire. Companies pay big money for data. The more specific, the more valuable. The biggest companies of today, like amazon, google, twitter, meta… Their business model is to collect data about you, sell advertisements, maybe even sell the data they’ve collected about you. And all of that is worth billions and billions of dollars. Why do you think they let you use TikTok or YouTube or something for free and the comany still makes millions?

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- SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I care a lot about freedom and my personal privacy. The data collected by apps doesn’t invade my privacy, and cannot reliably be used to harm me in any way, so I don’t care.
  
  Do you care that you’re on video at the bank? Same thing.
  
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  - rufus@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    data collected by apps doesn’t invade my privacy
    
    Sorry, i’m really at a loss here. I don’t understand. App data is used to make you transparent. To learn something about you to sell advertisements and show them to exactly those people who are the most likely to be influenced by it. This is how targeted advertisement works.
    
    You’re right. You’re not ‘harmed’ in a traditional meaning of the word. You’re just being manipulated. And so are millions of other people on the internet.
    
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    SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It isn’t used to make anything of me at all. You don’t seem to understand how this data is collected, aggregated and sold.
    
    Literally no one has a profile on me specifically. Relevant bits of data are captured and filtered and packaged and sold without any human interaction.
    
    There is no database entry for you as a person.
    
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  - ironhydroxide@partizle.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    “the data collected by apps… Cannot reliably be used to harm me”
    
    So you’re saying that someone can’t use your location, recordings of your audible surroundings, recordings of your devices camera view, and whom you may be interacting with cannot be used to harm you?
    
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    SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Correct.
    
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faberfedor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

I’m all for privacy, but the argument I have nothing to hide … is hard to argue with, when it comes to the average person, because the truth is that they don’t matter and most likely no-one cares about their specific data.

In that case, please post your real name, tax id (SSN in the States) and annual household income.

N.B. None of this information is private.

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- madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yea obviously not that… Like I said bank account stuff everyone gets… Google isn’t harvesting bank account numbers.
  
  Privacy and not getting hacked is not the same thing.
  
  My point is that most people just keep their banking safe and don’t care about the rest, hence “I got nothing to hide” attitude
  
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ode@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
but the argument I have nothing to hide except bank account passwords etc is hard to argue with

It’s simple to argue against: any and all data points are either potential threat vectors, or will in aggregate paint a better picture of the individual they pertain to, for the data’s possessor to use as they wish. A default-deny policy for data creation/access makes as much sense for individuals as it does workplaces.

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- madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I get it, I’m telling you why it doesn’t resonate with 99% of people. Once you have to explain threat vectors people shut it down and call you a paranoid person.
  
  Again, I don’t agree with it I’m just telling you why I have nothing to hide is so pervasive.
  
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