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Loss of Privacy Need not be Loss of Freedom

-- By HumzaD - 03 Nov 2015

Privacy is Already Dead

Although fully accepting the appalling extent to which our privacy is being invaded online and by our contemptuous machines, I have been grappling all semester with the question of whether this loss of privacy necessarily implies a loss of freedom. I remain unconvinced that the assumption that everything is being watched necessarily means a loss of freedom. But this is perhaps because I also remain unconvinced that there is any possible future without such monitoring and data collection. Whether or not we can resist the theft of our online identities or change the terms on which it is stolen (i.e., given away), there is no future in which I will ever be certain that no one is watching everything I do (or do not) do. This bleak outlook pushes me to convince myself that it is possible to remain free in the post-privacy era.

Sacrificing privacy for convenience certainly leaves us incredibly vulnerable to people out to take our money or our lives. But the people intent on such attacks have always been intent on such attacks. Bearing ourselves online brings a change in the degree of this threat, but it does not seem to bring a change in kind. Our promiscuity with our information simply gives a much bigger gun to our attackers. The gun analogy is apt in other ways. It is probably true, for example, that the instruments that collect our information were designed to attack us in much the same way guns were designed to kill. But literal guns do not do much beyond killing, whereas their metaphorical counterparts provide us a few additional benefits. Some frustratingly push us towards laziness and ignorance, but some are laudable. Facebook, for example, helps give the semblance of a small village to our increasingly globalized world. Village life is connected such that villagers are inevitably kept abreast of the goings on of their neighbors. There is no risk, for example, that I will not hear that my Cousin Larry is getting married. By sharing this information with Facebook, Larry can similarly disseminate this information through his network, which is now much larger and much more spread out. Larry can avoid having to choose between calling 3,000 different people and snubbing someone who was interested.

Targeting Bank Accounts

That the vultures also get wind of Larry’s wedding is not necessarily a bad thing either. Larry, presumably, would welcome more informed advertisers that are privy to what wedding venues are within Larry’s price range. Such suggestions are infinitely more useful to Larry than ads for wart cream when Larry is sifting through the massive amounts of information on wedding planning now available to him. If the advertisers really do know more about Larry than does Larry, perhaps they do him a service by pointing him towards things he is more likely to choose. I am not convinced that such suggestion, which could certainly be called manipulation, constitutes a loss of freedom. If we as a society can educate Larry to be a consumer that is aware of the potential manipulation, we can use such advertisement to guide more efficient consumption.

But the position of power these advertisers hold does come with an obvious potential for abuse that could lead to a real loss of freedom. For one, if Larry is not an educated and informed consumer, such suggestions may influence him in ways that preclude choice. Or, more sinisterly, if the people selling to Larry actually restrict his access to those options (particularly the more expensive ones) they think he is most likely and able to buy, they do preclude his ability to choose and strip him of his freedom as a consumer. Both of these problems can in theory be prevented if the sellers maintain the same level of transparency their consumers afford them. In this sense, Larry can protect his freedom as a consumer precisely because he assumes everything is being watched and by being keenly aware of how such monitoring is being used against him. In practice, however, this complete reciprocal transparency is unlikely since it diminishes the power of the sellers to manipulate and influence. But it also seems unlikely that sellers would unduly restrict consumer choice, since such restrictions would presumably lower the chances of sales. Sellers can probably catch more fish if they cast a wider net. Instead they are likely to preserve consumer choice while also nudging buyers towards the products those buyers are most likely to buy, based on an assessment of that buyer’s information. This ability of the seller to know the buyer better than he knows himself is a little disconcerting, and it does open potential for abuse and loss of freedom. But the intimate knowledge and tailored suggestions do not seem to constitute a loss of freedom per se, as long as consumers remain informed. Instead, they are useful tools in an overwhelmingly cluttered electronic market.

Targeting Lives

Assuming everything is being monitored has more troubling implications in the context of people targeting our lives. While this assumption in the consumer context is not likely to significantly alter behavior, if people think they will be killed for their beliefs, they are likely to censor themselves. Here, the larger gun given those with our information is much more dangerous. For example, a despotic government will have much less trouble tracking and gunning down legal activists. The assumption that everything is being watched is therefore likely to strongly discourage such activism in these societies.

But these heightened barriers to activism are not a new type of threat. They simply amplify the fundamental lack of freedom in such societies. These killers have always and will always use the tools available to kill. Even without the mass collection of citizen data, these governments will develop other means of monitoring the populace. For example, with cameras in the sky that can take multibillion pixel pictures of entire cities, these governments do not need Twitter to kill their enemies. They will find ways to do that, as they always have.

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I think I may need to split this into two essays. The targeting lives section feels incomplete without a discussion of how an assumption of monitoring plays out in a free society where public opinion may lead to censure and self-censorship, and whether this self-censorship (a result of utter transparency) is a loss of freedom. Not sure whether I should trim down the consumer section and try and squeeze this in or try to split these three topics ((1)consumer monitoring, (2) opinion monitoring in an unfree society, (3) opinion monitoring in a free society) into two essays.

(Apologies for the delay. My cat showed my machine the same contempt it shows me and knocked a glass of water onto it yesterday, forcing me to start from scratch on a new machine.)

-- HumzaD - 03 Nov 2015