I had this conversation about privacy a week ago with a colleague. Not sure if it matters but she’s 21. She’s addicted to TikTok and was wondering why I did not use it.
I told her, I don’t trust the makers of it and don’t trust the country the app comes from (China, CCP). I half explained it was because of privacy issues. She looked me dead in the eyes and said “I don’t have anything to hide”.
So I simply said something along lines of;
“of course you don’t. The messages you sent to your boyfriend are not of intimacy things right? Certain pictures you send. Political conversations, your behavior patterns, religion. None of that matters right? Until it can be all used against you. If you care enough, I recommend to just research a couple of things up. Like for example Facebooks Cambridge scandal and Meta’s meddling with politics. Now imagine that from your own government”.
But of course, she shrugged it off and said she did not care.
My goto response when someone says “I have nothing to hide” is to ask them to hand me their phone unlocked so that I can go through their messages, pictures and financial stuff.
This usually does the trick of reminding them that you do have things to hide.
But of course, she shrugged it off and said she did not care.
Getting people to care is strangely hard. I think it’s because accepting some of the things we want people to care about means grappling with how the world is unfair and fucked up, and people are emotionally just not ready for that. People are stupid cowards.
Cognitive dissonance. “I dont care” is much easier to say then “wow, Im a fool that has shared way too much personal information and that has put me at risk”. The latter literally attacks your own identity.
These people do care because 5 minutes later they will be sharing their pet conspiracy theory that Siri is listening to their conversations.
People’s inability to grapple with cognitive dissonance, and how people often go with “I’m a good person making good choices” instead of the more difficult path of changing, is part of why everything is so horrible.
I had this conversation about privacy a week ago with a colleague. Not sure if it matters but she’s 21. She’s addicted to TikTok and was wondering why I did not use it.
I told her, I don’t trust the makers of it and don’t trust the country the app comes from (China, CCP). I half explained it was because of privacy issues. She looked me dead in the eyes and said “I don’t have anything to hide”.
So I simply said something along lines of;
“of course you don’t. The messages you sent to your boyfriend are not of intimacy things right? Certain pictures you send. Political conversations, your behavior patterns, religion. None of that matters right? Until it can be all used against you. If you care enough, I recommend to just research a couple of things up. Like for example Facebooks Cambridge scandal and Meta’s meddling with politics. Now imagine that from your own government”.
But of course, she shrugged it off and said she did not care.
My goto response when someone says “I have nothing to hide” is to ask them to hand me their phone unlocked so that I can go through their messages, pictures and financial stuff.
This usually does the trick of reminding them that you do have things to hide.
That’s actually a good one! I’ll do that too from now and see their response.
Getting people to care is strangely hard. I think it’s because accepting some of the things we want people to care about means grappling with how the world is unfair and fucked up, and people are emotionally just not ready for that. People are stupid cowards.
Cognitive dissonance. “I dont care” is much easier to say then “wow, Im a fool that has shared way too much personal information and that has put me at risk”. The latter literally attacks your own identity.
These people do care because 5 minutes later they will be sharing their pet conspiracy theory that Siri is listening to their conversations.
People’s inability to grapple with cognitive dissonance, and how people often go with “I’m a good person making good choices” instead of the more difficult path of changing, is part of why everything is so horrible.
I think it has more to do with not enough civil values.