My latest Guardian column, “Why is it so hard to convince people to care about privacy,” argues that the hard part of the privacy wars (getting people to care about privacy) is behind us, because bad privacy regulation and practices are producing wave after wave of people who really want to protect their privacy.
From now on, our job is figuring out what to tell those people when they come to us, to give them hope and tools so that they don’t become privacy nihilists.
Every week or two, from now on, will see new privacy disasters, each worse than the last. Every week or two, from now on, will see millions of people who suddenly wish there was more they could do to protect their privacy.
For privacy advocates in 2015, the job is clear: have a plan in your drawer. A plan: how to safeguard your privacy, how to understand your privacy, how to understand the breach. A plan that explains that your lack of security isn’t a fact of nature, it’s the result of conscious decisions made by people who were either hostile or indifferent to your wellbeing, who saved or made money through those decisions. A plan that shows you what you can do to keep you and yours safe – and whose head your should be demanding on a pike.
We should still be advocating for better practices, businesses, technology and rules for privacy, but our job will be made simpler with an army of supporters. That army is ready to enlist, too, even if they don’t know it.
Why is it so hard to convince people to care about privacy?
[The Guardian]