How Should A Risk-Taker Feel About The Right to Privacy?

Fellow Riskologist,

With the recent unveiling that The U.S. is spying on its own citizens and a few conversations and incidents I’ve had recently, I’ve thought a lot about the concept of privacy.

For those who argue “privacy doesn’t matter when you have nothing to hide,” I would counter that everyone has something to hide.

If you think about it, we all have information—and we all do things every day—that, while not secret, we don’t really want to share publicly. Particularly with our government.

If you really do think you have nothing to hide, I’d like to ask you a question:

Is that the truth, or have you just not yet been presented with a situation that’s crossed your privacy threshold yet?

Let me illustrate with a few examples:

Are you okay with the government collecting large swaths of Internet data you’re included in because it “keeps us safe from foreign threats?” If so, continue…

Are you okay with the data of your telephone calls being kept for the public’s security? It could be saving us from terrorists. If so, continue…

Are you okay with police searching your car (and everyone else’s) on a public road to make sure no drunk drivers get through? No one wants drunk drivers on the loose, right? I don’t.

These, of course, are things that are already happening. But where, exactly does it go from there? How about a few hypotheticals:

Would you be okay with the government telling you to remove the curtains from your home so the police can monitor for illegal activity? A lot of bad stuff happens right inside of homes across the country. Should we try to catch the bad guys like this?

Would you be okay if you were asked to make a monthly report—under oath, of course—of the conversations you had with your husband or wife? Don’t forget to include pillow talk.

And since weapons are so easily concealed, what if you were asked to strip naked to prove you’re not carrying anything dangerous as you go about your day? We could be absolutely positive no one is carrying a weapon they shouldn’t be if we did this.

I say that if you close your curtains at night, if you don’t tell strangers of your most intimate conversations, and you wear clothes when you go outside, then you do care about privacy.

Somewhere along that line of hypotheticals, you probably reached a point where you said to yourself, “No, I’m not okay with that.” And that’s okay! You shouldn’t be!

Here’s something funny (read: tragic) though: The hypotheticals above aren’t (completely) made up. Each example comes from a previous assault on your privacy. For years in The U.S., the government has tried to enact laws to give them more access to your private property, to your private conversations and, in NYC, police actively perform pat down searches on anyone they like.

If you’re okay with some of these examples but not others, I’d say I’ve made my point. Please remember that everyone has their own privacy threshold that is different from yours. I live quite publicly here on Riskology.co, but there are other parts of my life I prefer to keep private. You probably feel the same about your own life.

Just because your line has not been crossed yet, does not mean that someone else’s hasn’t.

Whenever we’re asked to give up our privacy, it’s always for the “public good.” But this is a red herring. Our privacy (or giving it up) is not for the public good; it is for our individual good. And when you respect and protect the rights of an individual, the public good is protected by default.

As risk-takers, we give up the very thing that allows us to take risks when we give up our privacy. A smart Riskologist knows that to take a great risk in public, she must be able to take many small ones in private to prepare herself.

She must feel confident that she can keep her thoughts and her actions to herself until she’s ready to reveal them. And she should feel confident that her personal life and experiments are safe from government scrutiny.

It is not up to a government to tell us when we have privacy and when we don’t. It is not even up to the people to tell their government spying and breaching personal privacy is okay because it is not up to me to decide when it’s okay to trespass on my neighbor nor he on me.

Privacy is not bestowed upon us by a government or any other person or entity, and it is not a privilege. It is a right. And just like a number of other rights we hold dear and defend fiercely, it is a natural right—one we are born with, live with, and die with. It is ours simply by the nature of our humanity. No one can grant it or take it away. It simply is.

If this message struck a chord with you, I only hope you will—as a smart Riskologist—stand up for your own right to privacy in whatever way you feel appropriate.

Remember that a right is not something that is taken away from you in one fell swoop. Instead, it’s slowly eroded over time until it is meaningless. Piece by piece, it’s dismantled while your attention is directed elsewhere.

Beware.