Privacy and why we need it

Imagine a world, where your any move, any action, and any idea could lead to your internment, imprisonment or execution, purely because someone else out their disagrees with you.

As radical as this idea sounds, this is the sad reality for many in this day and age.

In many regimes around the world, dictators and the powers that be, feel entitled to use police and military action to enforce their views upon those subject to their rule. For these citizens, it can literally be a matter of life and death to ensure that their oppressors are unable to spy upon their private lives.

This risk, is why privacy, and anti surveillance tactics are a must for all if they wish to remain free.

But why, one may ask, does privacy matter?

Lets consider a hypothetical:

A man named Jack, and his partner Jill. They are your average, law abiding citizens living in a modern, developed nation. Lets imagine that this couple are in a pivotal moment in their lives, in that they are looking to start saving for their first home, and to start a family. So far, a normal and common scenario.

Now lets look at this same scenario from the viewpoint of their employers. Jack, one of your workers, is in desperate need for additional money, and Jill, may soon require a considerable amount of time off work due to having a child. She won’t be as effective a worker during this time as any other potential hire. While she is in this situation, Jack will be more desperate for money, and less able to change jobs due to the fears of financial uncertainty.

If the employers know that this is the case going in, they may well be inclined to fire Jill, to replace her with a cheaper worker that may be a better, long term investment. Additionally, Jacks employer may be inclined to start providing him worse shifts and less pay, as they know that he may not have a choice but to accept the lost income. Banks now also know the situation, and can see that Jack will be likely to have reduced earnings, with Jill potentially having no earning capability. As such, they may either increase the interest rate on their home loan due to “increased repayment risk”, or deny it entirely. If the bank does increase the interest rate, they may do so with the intent to make Jack spend the rest of his like in poverty just to provide a home for his family.

In this scenario, the information of looking to buy a home and start a family may seem innocent, but the implications of this information being shared can have drastic effects on the quality of their lives. This scenario may not be a matter of life and death, but is still capable of drastically and irreversibly changing the couples lives.

Now lets looks at a darker scenario:

Frank is a single male in his early twenties living in a major city in a country where he has little to no personal rights or freedoms. Frank works a low skilled labour job, and plays video games in his spare time. He regularly messages his online friends and posts online about the best tactics and methods to win at his favourite video games.

The government that controls Franks life, has long since eroded any entitlement to personal privacy from their citizens. They have also decided that they want a major, decade long construction to happen, but they don’t want to pay for the project to happen. This government, under draconian laws that they enacted, intercept and monitor the in-game messages Frank has sent to his friends, and takes them out of context to charge Frank for planning a terrorist attack. The corrupt legal system finds him guilty after a sham trial, and seizes all his personal assets and sentences him to 10 years of imprisonment. Now this government has free money, and a labourer that they don’t have to pay for their construction project.

These two scenarios illustrate different issues that may occur, if those with power over our lives get to see our actions without limit. Both of these scenarios occur regularly around the world on a near daily basis, without recourse or repercussions. As our personal rights to privacy are eroded away, the likelihood of these scenarios, and many more similar and sinister occurrences from becoming more of a reality.

Luckily, not all is lost. Even if the government allows or encourages the invasion of our privacy, and the monitoring of our activities, we can take actions to minimize our footprint, and help prevent the abuse, or misuse of our personal information.

Through future articles, we will discuss and develop methods that may be used by us, as individuals, to minimize the ability of large corporations and governments to monitor us through the use of mass surveillance techniques. We will also provide more specific information for counter surveillance techniques for when you believe that you are being actively targeted by such groups.

Stay safe, until we meet again,
Mr. Anon