Stop Saying Privacy Is Dead
Our lives are still rich in personal privacy — and we should fight to keep it that way
Co-authored by Evan Selinger and Woodrow Hartzog
Privacy protections are at risk yet again. The Five Eyes security alliance, which spans the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, has issued a “Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption,” which suggests that tech companies will face strong opposition if they don’t provide law enforcement with backdoors for encrypted communication. Executives from big tech companies are being hauled in front of Congress to answer for our jeopardized personal data. Facial recognition is running amok. Privacy keeps being assaulted, with seemingly no end in sight.
The landscape looks so bleak that it may feel like every shred of privacy we’ve ever had is gone or is guaranteed to go by the wayside. “Privacy doesn’t exist in a post-Facebook crisis era,” Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser declared, suggesting that as a consolation prize we should at least be able to make money selling data currently being taken from us. Media studies professor Ian Bogost says our chances of opting out of surveillance capitalism are so poor that he declares “the age of privacy nihilism is here.” Almost likening…
