The Nothing to Hide as a libertarian trap: Critical Reflections on the spread of John Soloves thesis
Lucas DomÃ­nguez Rubio
Journal of Data Processing, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2018.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6025/jdp/2018/8/3/95-99
Link: http://www.dline.info/jdp/fulltext/v8n3/jdpv8n3_2.pdf
Abstract:
The phrase â€œNothing to Hideâ€ is usually the initial way in which nowadays the mass media deal with problems around privacy. For several years now, when journalists, academics and activists discuss why privacy matters, they usually
attack this argument. In fact, now there is a Nothing to hide genre established through blogs, conferences and books. The
analysis of the various counter-arguments proposed in journalistic interventions allows us to evaluate assumptions, limits
and similarities. In general, the set of counter-arguments seeks to generate some fear of potential personal inconvenience to
show the importance of updating privacy as a social value. If the Nothing to hide aims that big data bases do not involve any
personal, social or political problem, the different counter-arguments against it only point out that it could involve potential
personal problems. In this way the Nothing to hide usually is the first obstacle to open political discussions around internet,
since it could be a way to close the discussion about how we use the internet or it could be a way to spread this topic.