Nothing to Hide?

A common reply to worries about surveillance is: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” It sounds sensible, but it treats privacy as hiding wrongdoing. Privacy has other uses: it lets people try ideas, make mistakes and speak freely without fear of judgment.

Jeremy Bentham promoted a prison design, the panopticon, where one guard could watch every cell without being seen. The prisoners could never know when they were watched, so they behaved as if always watched. Michel Foucault later used the idea to describe how being observable changes conduct.

So the real question is not whether you have something shameful to hide. It is what kind of life people can lead if they are always watched, and who gets to decide what is recorded.

The open-plan office

An open-plan office adds software that logs every keystroke. The manager says, “Honest staff have nothing to hide.” Within a month, staff stop trying out rough drafts and avoid asking questions that might look foolish.

A staff member points out that no one has been caught doing anything wrong, yet the work has become more cautious. The company limits the logging to security events and lets staff keep drafts private.

Try this today List three things you would do differently if you knew you were being watched, and why.