The Privacy Paradox

Dekortage writes "The NYTimes has a piece up about the paradox of privacy: 'Normally sane people have inconsistent and contradictory impulses and opinions when it comes to their safeguarding their own private information.' More specifically, it's all how you ask: if you don't talk about privacy, people won't worry about it. In one survey, 'When the issue of confidentiality was raised, participants clammed up. For example, 25 percent of the students who were given a strong assurance of confidentiality admitted to having copied someone else's homework. Among those given no assurance of confidentiality, more than half admitted to it.'"

Comments

I don't understand why you object to surveillance.

[MichaelCrawford]

Surely if you've done nothing wrong, then you've got nothing to hide.

Re:Trust me

[trolltalk.com]

People are rightly suspicious when they hear someone state explicitly that they are not planning on doing something evil.

So it was a really dumb idea for a certain company to make their motto "do no evil" ...

It also begs the question* about doctors and "first, do no harm."

*(no, I'm not interested in little grammar hitlers starting a war over "begs the question". Put it in an ask slashdot - or better yet, get a life.)

Re:Trust me

[Firehed]

If you ask a girl out on a date she might say yes.

You seem to have forgotten to which website you're posting.