An Epidemic of Snooping

Travoltus writes "Privacy advocates are frequently confronted with the rhetorical question, 'If you don't have anything to hide, you don't have a good reason to worry about losing your privacy, right?' This AP story uncovers a vast, distributed, decentralized epidemic of snooping into databases of personal information by workers at major utilities, the IRS, and other large organizations. In a number of cases these incidents have led to real harm. One striking example involves now ex-Mayor of Milwaukee Marvin Pratt, who had a pattern of being late paying his heating bills. This fact was leaked to the media by a utility worker and may have led to Pratt's losing a bid for re-election. As one can imagine, the harm becomes much greater when this same snooping is done by Government officials to deal with political enemies, or by corporations to uncover whistleblowers."

Re:Easy Answer

[CSMatt]

So then what do you say if the response is "Sure. I trust the police."?

Evil corporations

[Ethanol-fueled]

Why must evil corporations go out of their way to violate the privacy of others? I would never do such a thing. Now excuse me, for I have some other things to do today, such as this [starmagazine.com] and this [gossipreport.com]. Oh, and I have a date tonight and I want to get to know her [background...ateway.com]. I even picked the movie [imdb.com]!

What I like to do

[Xenkar]

What I like to do to those "If you have nothing to hide" people is tell them the truth. I make sure to tell them about all of the weird fetishes I wank off to, my thoughts on the whole "don't eat your own boogers" conspiracy, and whatever twisted thoughts are going through my mind at the moment.

My right to privacy isn't for my sake, it is for everyone else. Their fragile minds can't handle the onslaught of awkwardness I bring down upon them.

Re:Q&A

[statusbar]

I don't have anything to hide! I live at #4-1131 burnaby st in vancouver, I own 3 macintosh computers, 2 linux servers, a video camera, MIDI equipment, a large screen plasma tv, a ps3 and an xbox 360.

I have loads of dvd's and I blog about all of my favourites.

On wednesday I will be going on a trip for a few weeks and although I don't have an alarm system I have a pet cat. I'm getting my friend Kim to come over every day at noon to feed my cat.

I am a trusting person and I'm SURE that no one would take advantage of this information and break in and rob me while I'm gone!

Once again, I have nothing to hide!

--jeffk++

Re:Q&A

[Anonymous Coward]

You and your cat can goto hell! I'm not going to risk my life after you post this information to all these potential burglars and rapists!
-Kim

Here He Comes To Save The Day

[hyades1]

I'm pretty sure the video my girlfriend made of me chasing her around the apartment dressed as Captain Cocktastic doesn't actually violate any laws (There's nothing on the books in Canada about good taste as far as I know).

On the other hand, I doubt whether having it posted on the internet would help my political career all that much, if I had one. Unless I was running in Toronto/Rosedale, of course.

Re:knowledge is power

[aadvancedGIR]

"All power corrupts, absolute power ...is even more fun" -- Simon Travaglia (BOFH)

My response...

[TFer_Atvar]

Mind if I follow you into the bathroom?

Re:Q&A

[Anonymous Coward]

Woah. I grew up in 1141, next door (the big ugly brown building on the other side of that huge tree). There was a totally hot girl who used to live where you... umm, hi son?

Re:Q&A

[jollyreaper]

Do you really think I'd be so stupid as to post real information?

Err, no! Of course, not. Don't be silly. *quietly cancels U-Haul rental*