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+---
+Title: Reflection on Individual Privacy vs. Societal Good.
+Description: A reflection on Individual Privacy vs. Social Good
+Tags: 
+  - privacy
+
+---
+
+['I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of
+Privacy](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565)
+
+> Read the following paper and prepare a 400-600 word reflection on Individual
+> Privacy vs. Societal Good.
+
+This reflection was written to satisfy a homework assignment for CS396 Security,
+Privacy, and Society at [Stevens Institute of
+Technology](https://www.stevens.edu/school-engineering-science/departments/computer-science)
+for Professor Antonio Nicolos.
+
+---
+
+> The U.S. government practices “full pipe monitoring” and association mapping,
+> which gives them the ability to build a detailed map of how our social
+> movements are organized, worse this gives them precise information about what
+> linkages should be disrupted in order to disrupt large social movements.
+
+From [Riseup's about us page](https://riseup.net/en/about-us)
+
+I believe privacy is a fundamental right of everyone, both online and offline.
+We have a strong desire to feel in control, and having control over our data
+means we have more autonomy.
+
+When data is collected, it can often be leaked due to incompetence, as seen in
+the past with various local, state, and federal government data breaches. The
+more data an agency collects, the bigger the target becomes for hackers. Even if
+you have nothing to hide, and even if the government may not do anything harmful
+with your data, when it ends up in the wrong hands, your information may be used
+to phish you or your family and friends.
+
+As government data collection often focuses on people with suspicious behavior
+patterns, anyone marked as "out of distribution" by an AI model may be subjected
+to extra scrutiny. This additional scrutiny can lead to unwarranted invasions of
+privacy and potential misunderstandings of innocent behavior. Since AI models
+used to flag behavior are usually trained on neurotypical individuals,
+misclassification of behaviors by neurodivergent people may make their lives
+even harder, potentially leading to legal issues.
+
+Historically, we've seen examples of government surveillance being used against
+civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. More recently, as some states
+ban abortion, we can see government surveillance data being used to prosecute
+people who seek or aid in providing abortions. In Texas, the attorney general's
+office sought state data on transgender Texans to revert their gender on their
+driver's licenses. These cases illustrate that even if surveillance may seem
+acceptable under a government you trust, there's no guarantee that future
+administrations or shifting political climates won't turn that same surveillance
+apparatus against you or causes you support.
+
+As we have seen with programs like COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) in
+the 1950s-70s, government surveillance technologies can be deployed to monitor
+and actively disrupt legitimate social movements and protests. The U.S.
+government's practice of "full pipe monitoring" and association mapping provides
+them with powerful tools to analyze and map out the structure of social
+movements in unprecedented detail. This level of insight allows authorities to
+identify key organizers, communication channels, and operational patterns within
+activist networks, potentially undermining legitimate social activism.
+
+As seen on [D. J. Bernstein's Blog on the
+NSA](https://blog.cr.yp.to/20220805-nsa.html), the NSA has a long history of
+attempting to undermine the security of the internet to facilitate its
+surveillance capabilities. These efforts to weaken internet security not only
+compromise individual privacy but also create vulnerabilities that can be
+exploited by malicious actors, including cybercriminals and foreign intelligence
+agencies.
+
+Ultimately, preserving privacy is not just about individual rights, but about
+maintaining the foundations of a democratic society where people can think,
+communicate, and organize freely without fear of unwarranted scrutiny or
+repression.
+
+---
+
+Solove, Daniel J., 'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of
+Privacy. San Diego Law Review, Vol. 44, p. 745, 2007, GWU Law School Public Law
+Research Paper No. 289, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=998565
+
+See also: [Electronic Frontier Foundation](https://www.eff.org/)