Privacy Is Not Just About You
Something is frequently missing from conversations about online privacy; how we move from doing things ourselves to growing the paradigm.
Introduction
Online privacy is a much-discussed topic. If you reading this you are one of a growing minority taking steps to protect yourself when communicating, purchasing, browsing, and, yes, searching online. Do you remember when you first decided to protect yourself better online? Some of the first privacy reads are often just instructions and steps to tune up your own setup.
In most writings about online privacy the typical scenario is a me-against-the-them paradigm. Yes, guides and resources are published and maintained in order to help a diverse group of people, but the actions which are detailed in these materials are pretty much always focused on the individual.
you change your browser, you change your email provider, you change your search engine.
But for real change to occur one needs to convince other people who are not yet sufficiently aware about privacy and surveillance, or those who feel they are too busy to bother. You might have heard them use the cliche: “I have nothing to hide”. Like me you might have experienced failed dinner conversations, or moments at the pub where a friend’s eyes just start to glaze over when you bring up the problematic aspects of digital surveillance for the 100th time…
For real change to occur mass movements are needed. Challenger search engines and browsers need users in order to gain and maintain revenue streams. Messenger apps need network effects in order to keep users in their ecosystems. Competing privacy-first projects need people to use them at scale in order to change the norms of society. At the end of the day, for privacy to truly be effective it has to be normalised. We need to think beyond your privacy and my privacy, and consider our privacy. Ours at scale; at a scale where digital surveillance is no longer considered the norm in society.
“Our” Privacy
The reality is that our ability to stay private online relies on our collective action and desire for privacy. The Oxen Service Node Network, Signal’s TLS proxies and the TOR Project are very real manifestations of how Our Privacy depends upon an interconnected network of individuals and organisations working hard to fight back against data overreach, against surveillance from both corporations and the state.
Every person that joins in the fight for privacy, and that supports privacy tools, makes us stronger. We gain one more voice to find more converts and we have one more signal to the powers that be that a product won’t be bought, or a candidate won’t be elected - if they keep going on like that. At some point in the future we will reach critical mass and surveillance-free products will become the norm.
Bringing Others on Board
I’ve written before about What Big Tech Does With Your Data, and there are arguments there which will definitely convince people that the exploitation of data for profit and power is something that has to stop. Here I want to give you something concrete when it comes to talking to those unconvinced about privacy.
- Put yourself in their shoes: remember that everyone has different arguments which will convince them that privacy is important. Tailor yours to the person you’re talking to.
- Whatever you do, don’t patronise: talking down to someone is a very quick and easy way to have them shut off from your argument. Ridiculing someone for not knowing or caring about things is a great way to wall them off from your arguments.
- Try asking why someone has an opinion rather than arguing against it: the Socratic Method can be a very effective tool when it comes to understanding exactly why someone believes something. Questions like “why do you think that” can help you understand where to focus your energies.
- Keep it simple: Privacy is a very big subject and you’re not going to manage to convey it in its entirety through one conversation. Boil privacy down to easy steps and accessible narratives - the bigger stuff can come later.
- Balance is often more persuasive than one side: People will often see imbalance in an argument and rush to fill the void, even when that means coming to the defence of a trillion-dollar company. Show that you’ve considered both sides of an argument when making yours.
- Stories are often the most powerful tools we have: Facts and figures are essential when it comes to building an argument, but humans are fundamentally natural storytellers. Try to bring listeners along with you in a way that makes your privacy journey enticing and interesting.
- Don’t sensationalise, but do talk about issues: Privacy is a human right for sure, but when talking about it stick to the facts and use concrete examples. Make sure your argument is supported by things which have actually happened (we have enough things to draw from,) rather than relying on hypothetical and theoretical arguments.
- Don’t make it seem hard: The further you get into your privacy journey the more hurdles you face. Think about how much of a sizeable task this all seemed when you started off, and then consider how you could make that more manageable for others who aren’t as far down the road as you.
- Hold their hand through early steps: Adding new tools to a setup can be daunting, and can in some cases be an almost insurmountable task for people who are less tech-savvy. Onboarding my friends and family to private messengers, or spending a bundle of hours porting my partner’s passwords into a password manager, is time well spent if it means that our collective attack surface has been decreased.
- Start with an easy win: some of my friends who are now evangelists for more secure email clients and encrypted messengers got there through other related issues. One such avenue here is ad-blocking; helping someone out with stopping invasive tracking adverts can be a simple window for them into a world of privacy.
Hopefully some of these pointers will enhance your ability to get more people caring about privacy. We need more people to help push back the tide of surveillance and tracking that has been rising since the dawn of the web. Privacy is a human right, isn’t that right Mojeek?
