What Privacy Isn’t
This chapter cuts through some of the common myths about privacy in our digital society. First, privacy isn’t about hiding dark secrets. Saying that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear ignores that we all have aspects of our selves we don’t want shared indiscriminately, ignores that privacy matters because privacy is about power, and incorrectly focuses on privacy as an individual rather than a social matter. Second, privacy isn’t about creepiness. Using socially contingent psychological reactions as a trigger for whether privacy is menaced is a trap because it is underinclusive, overinclusive, and malleable by those who collect data. Third, privacy isn’t about “controlling our data.” In our complex world, control of data is an illusion that actually cedes control to powerful companies, thereby completing the creepy trap. Fourth, privacy isn’t dying; it’s the ongoing social conversation about the social power that human information confers.