Internet Sophism

Bruce Schneier has a new article on Wired about the importance of privacy as a basic human need. I completely agree with him. The common response from the watchers of “if you are not doing anything wrong, what are you afraid of?” fails on several levels – I’ll let you read the article to find out how.

I do have one more dimension to privacy that I would like to add – marketing also diminishes my freedom. Even if data was collected on me by completely benign corporate entities who really would offer me the best product, and there was no fear of malicious entent by those in power, I would still be reticent to give up that information. I want my own ideas. I want to make my own mistakes. Like a rebellious teenager, I want to live my own life.

Perhaps I don’t feel like that in every situation, but as Bruce points out in his article, I definitely need my private space – discrete, distinct, and mine.