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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Privacy is prerequisite for free thought, dissent, experimentation, and innovation, which are in turn prerequisites for democracy. At NBTV, Naomi Brockwell has posted four reasons why limits on privacy are absolutely not a price worth paying for mainstream adoption [substack.com].

Today I participated in a Privacy Salon in Denver where we debated a proposition that cuts to the core of the modern privacy movement:

“Limits on privacy are a price worth paying for mainstream adoption of cryptographic privacy.”

I was on the “no” side alongside Matt Green, with Evin McMullen and Wei Dai arguing “yes.”

It was a lively, thoughtful exchange that forced us to confront a deeper question: is weakening privacy simply the cost of scale?

Below is my opening statement from the debate.

The false argument about having nothing to hide [yewtu.be] does not hold water. As Ed Snowden observed years ago, "arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say."

Previously:
(2026) Ring Cancels Flock Deal After Dystopian Super Bowl Ad Prompts Mass Outrage [soylentnews.org]
(2026) Discord Will Require a Face Scan or ID for Full Access Next Month [soylentnews.org]
(2026) "ICE Out of Our Faces Act" Would Ban ICE and CBP Use of Facial Recognition [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Big Tech Wants Direct Access to Our Brains [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Discord Customer Service Data Breached; Government-ID Images, and User Details Stolen [soylentnews.org]
(2025) A Surveillance Vendor Was Caught Exploiting a New SS7 Attack to Track People's Phone Locations [soylentnews.org]
... and many more

Original Submission