Your Privacy Isn't Just Yours

                Typically, I peruse the Tech feed on the Paper app produced by Facebook. I find it’s an easy way to stay updated on at least a few of the things going on in the science world, even though it’s not particularly “intellectual.” A few days ago, through the app, I came across an article on The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf entitled, “This Man Has Nothing to Hide – Not Even His Email Password”. I have recently been devouring every article I come across that has to do with internet privacy, so it immediately piqued my interest. Upon reading the article, which is about one Noah Dyer who gave Friedersdorf the passwords to all his accounts without stipulation, I found myself not questioning my stance on internet privacy, which is a conservative one, but even more deeply rooted in my belief that everyone has a right to his or her privacy online.

                Friedersdorf’s findings in Dyer’s email accounts are likely fairly common. He encounters emails disclosing sensitive information about Dyer’s financial situation as well as exchanges with romantic partners. These emails in particular contained explicit images of the women Dyer had had relations with, some of whom were married. Should the author have desired, he could have ruined families with a few simple clicks.

                Dyer’s willingness to reveal intimate details of his personal life, to me, is not just self-sabotage, but highly disrespectful of the people he regularly contacts through the methods the author had access to. As Friedersdorf points out, “How would those women [who had emailed Dyer explicit photos of themselves] feel if I contacted them, explained the access Dyer had given me, and asked how they felt about it?” This, to me, is the million dollar question. The women Dyer had received photos of obviously sent them to him expecting a certain degree of discretion. I am sure none of them would be comfortable with Friedersdorf having access to those photos and the correspondence they had with Dyer. I applaud Dyer for living out his “nothing to hide” philosophy, but I cannot help but be appalled at his insensitivity to the people he has come in contact with whose privacy he threw out the window along with his own. Though when we send information to others, there is no explicit demanding that what we say or show is kept private, there is usually a societal understanding that most private communication should be kept between the two people involved in the exchange. Dyer’s complete disregard for that societal convention is offensive to me, and likely to many others. I understand that in his “perfect world” without privacy, the revelation of such sensitive information would be routine and hardly an issue, but we are not living in Dyer’s world. His choice to reveal his private communications regardless of the wishes of those he has conversed with is callous and selfish.

                Maybe in Dyer’s world living without a shred of privacy would make life much less complicated. But in the real world we live in, willingly giving up the confidentiality of private communication is both irresponsible and insensitive and should be avoided at all costs. That is, unless you want your friends and family to hate you for exposing their secrets to the whole world.