When I expressed concerns about privacy issues arising from the NSA controversy, several folks responded that there is no problem if I don’t have something to hide.
We ALL have something to hide or SHOULD. The most obvious is financial information that can result in Identity Theft. Shockingly, most people do little or nothing to protect even that information.
Information is power — Identity theft is financial power. Massive personal information is political power, as evidenced by the IRS persecution of conservative groups and their members and contributors. When the government has information and citizens do not, it is no longer a Constitutional government because the citizen lacks the means to hold the government accountable.
When it takes teams of lawyers to advise other lawyers, you must be concerned when you realize that our system is based on ” Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” It has been suggested that the average US Citizen technically violates a number of federal rules and regulations every day that could make them subject to fines, jail, and even forfeitures of their property.
This video of a TED presentation shows what a citizen found when they sued to get their email “meta-data” as is being gathered by NSA. Meta-data is not harmless.
“If everyone’s every action were being monitored, and everyone technically violates some obscure law at some time, then punishment becomes purely selective”.
The following wired.com article makes a strong case for the danger of not taking privacy seriously.