Why Privacy Matters

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I came across a super interesting article about privacy and why it matters today, but even better was the hackernews comment thread that accompanied it where someone shared the poem above, entitled “First they came” and written by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) in reference to the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

The “I have nothing to hide” argument is not really working any more, and seems to follow that string of peculiar human logic where we know something is fishy, but ignore it because diving down that rabbit hole seems too much like hard work (or, in this case, too much like “lack of zero-thought convenience”).

Check out prism-break.org and privacytols.io for lists of tools that can help you to regain your online privacy

#staywoke