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Privacy: “I have nothing to hide”

"I’ve Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy by Daniel J. Solove, George Washington University Law School San Diego Law Review, Vol. 44, No. #, 2007; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 289.

Abstract: In this short essay, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the "nothing to hide" argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: "I’ve got nothing to hide." According to the "nothing to hide" argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The "nothing to hide" argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the "nothing to hide" argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings. Keywords: privacy, nothing to hide, data mining, surveillance

Excerpt:

The "nothing to hide" argument speaks to some problems, but not to others. It represents a singular and narrow way of conceiving of privacy, and it wins by excluding consideration of the other problems often raised in government surveillance and data mining programs. When engaged with directly, the "nothing to hide" argument can ensnare, for it forces the debate to focus on its narrow understanding of privacy. But when confronted with the plurality of privacy problems implicated by government data collection and use beyond surveillance and disclosure, the "nothing to hide" argument, in the end, has nothing to say.

Thanks to Patrice McDermott and GovInfo News (7-11-2007). See also: Privacy and the "Terrorist Surveillance Act".

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


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