Digital privacy

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.

Edward Snowden

You should worry about your digital privacy, even though you “have nothing hide”. It’s all about freedom. Freedom of thought and expression, freedom to communicate in private and to store private information securely. Freedom to keep secrets, freedom to share secrets with only those you trust. Freedom to have curtains behind the windows of your own home, and to move about without being tracked. Freedom to not have your computer or phone searched by strangers at airports (wipe your phone before, restore later). Freedom to communicate securely over the internet with strong end-to-end encryption.

The time we live in clearly demonstrates to what lengths governments are willing go to get their hands on as much information as possible, often covertly beyond the law, or by creating new draconian surveillance laws to legitimize these acts of crime against humanity. While at the same time huge global private corporations are harvesting and monetizing as much data about people as possible. Trading personal privacy for increased security and convenience, piece by piece, will surely lead us to hell.

Don't be a sheep. Don't be a product. Don't be a naive fool. Be aware, vigilant and exercise your rights. Oppose unjust surveillance and data harversting. Take your own personal privacy very seriously. Because it will be constantly under attack now and in the future.

I support EFN, a Norwegian civil liberties organization. It is a sister organization to the better known Electronic Frontier Foundation. Some topics I find interesting are censorship, illegal and immoral surveillance of people through digital technology, invasion of privacy, network neutrality, libre software and open standards, interoperability concerns and libre software that enables secure communication over the internet. Raising public awareness about issues such as these is an important matter.