What are your views on the phrase "If you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear."?

I have nothing to hide but that doesn’t mean I don’t want privacy.

No, as long as human beings are monitoring the CCTV you have plenty to worry about. Like for instance voyeurism.

Identity theft is still to be feared.

I think it’s true. Why would anybody be nervous if they aren’t hiding anything?

False reassurance.

I absolutely disagree.

It really depends on who is defining ‘what there is to hide’. If it is the government then of course you have something to fear. Many people would not consider activism something to hide but there have been cases were activists were persecuted or jailed for life as examples. Another example would be associating with people who are known activists even if you do not participate yourself. You can get “in trouble” for all sorts of odd things. Here’s one for ya: being ambiguously ethnic. I mean look at all the people who are targets for racial profiling who have done nothing to warrant it. I could go on and on. Fear has been installed in tons of people who are not “deserving” of it.

What there is to “hide” is always being redefined. Let’s just hope there isn’t another mass persecution of people with different belief systems like concentration camps or forced boarding schools or witch trials etc… because then you are targeted not for what you have done but who you are. Just ask many Muslim people today.

@ChocolateReigns because some of us demand to not be invaded upon and our rights neglected.

Very good and thought-provoking question. I choose to respond the way it made me feel before reading the details; it made me think of ones’ emotions, inhibitions and fears. That is, if you are courageous enough to overcome your fears, show your emotions, express yourself, so to speak, then you will have nothing to hide.

As far as the other meaning of the question is concerned (a la Big Brother) – I think we will just have to get used to it. It’s frightening at first thought, but I can also see a lot of advantages. Just as you are happy your dog has a chip and can be found with GPS – wouldn’t it be great to find a kidnapped daughter, soldier or spouse?

The recent failed terrorist’s profile shouldn’t even have allowed him to buy a ticket, let alone board a palne with explosives. His own father had notified the authorities years earlier of his son’s El Qaeda ways. Had his DNA been on file, he would have been apprehended long before he could’ve done any harm.

Big Brother? Thought Police? Minority Report? Yep. I’m not sure if it isn’t a good idea.

That is just a line to take the pepperoni of your pizza.

Sounds like a slippery slope to disappearing liberty.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Some of the worst manifestations of a police state occur when you really are innocent, and you really don’t have anything to hide, but the investigators are positive that you’re lying.

@laureth GA!

That line is just rhetoric. When that line is used, it’s usually in the context of an individual who has been accused of something being questioned by some large, powerful institution. Like a suspected criminal and the police. If an individual person isn’t able to hide anything, they don’t have any power. For this line to be believable, we would have to believe that institutions like governments are perfect- that if we really are innocent, they will find this out and protect our rights 100% of the time.

It is usually advocated ‘the powerful’ – who have things to hide, and fear what those whom they exert their power over might have hidden and or know about what ‘the powerful’ are hiding. It is also advocated by the naive and overly trusting.

Frankly, it makes me see red. I may not have anything to hide, but that doesn’t mean I want anyone to see my naked ass in an airport or listen in on my phone conversations.

Basically it means you aren’t susceptible to personal blackmail, but the bad guys can still take people you care about hostage to force you to do something you don’t want to do. However, in terms of government knowing everything about an individual, it means ultimate power to whatever entity holds that information. In large part because this means the government can go back and change your file any way they wish in order to control you.

no, its an total fallacy. argument by slogan. meaningless dribble. i do have something to hide, my privacy.

my counter argument would be ’‘just because i want to hide it does not mean its illegal or you have a need to know about it’’

Don’t trust the government. They will butt fuck you.

In an age of spin, it’s not whether you are innocent or guilty, and it’s not whether you think you have something to hide. It’s how you can be made to look. It’s a malicious interpretation that can be put on innocuous deeds or facts. It’s the impossibility of proving a negative. Any one of us can be mischaracterized by someone with an ill intent, even if our record is clean and our life is without shadows. I fear that.

No, because the people who control the security and the data are largely incompetent.

I have no problem with my DNA being on record or having to carry identity cards etc, in respect to all that I have nothing to hide so it’s not something that bothers me. However the saying will be flawed until the day that innocent people stop being convicted for crimes they didn’t commit. I’m sure to them, this saying is no consolation at all.

Is there anyway I can delete this question?

Why do you want to?