why privacy matters (even if you have nothing to hide)

Privacy is often ignored because its inconvenient and you dont really get any immediate benefits. A lot of people say "why care about privacy, I have nothing to hide". Thats probably the most common argument against privacy but its kinda flawed. Privacy is not just for criminals or people that have something to hide, its for everyone. Its a basic right.

So what do you actually get from hiding your identity and being private online in day to day life?

Less manipulation, no hyper personalised ads, less impulse to buy. Ads are not just about selling you shoes you looked up once. They are about building a profile of you. What you like, what you hate, how you spend your time, what mood you are in. Then they use this to push products or even politics on you. It feels normal because you see stuff you “like” but in reality you are just being guided without noticing. With more privacy you see less of that and you can decide for yourself instead of being triggered all the time.

Less risk of hacks. Companies like facebook, linkedin and adobe were hacked and millions of user records leaked. In 2021, data from 533 million Facebook users including names, emails and phone numbers got published on a hacking forum. If you share less you have less attack surface. And once your data is out there you cant take it back. It can be used years later for scams, spam, identity theft, targeted phishing or even just to connect more and more data points about you.

More freedom. Social media keeps you in an echo chamber and only shows you what keeps you scrolling. Everything is filtered to match your interests and keep you engaged. That might sound nice at first but in reality it limits what you see and what you think about. You dont discover new ideas, you just see more of the same. It creates a bubble where your opinions feel stronger because you never see the other side. And if platforms decide to push certain topics or hide others you wont even notice. With more privacy and less tracking the algorithms have less data to lock you in, so you get a more open internet instead of a personalized cage.

Even if you think "I dont care about ads, I dont even use facebook" there is still the bigger picture. Even if you personally have nothing to hide, there are journalists, activists and whistleblowers who do. Not because they are criminals but because they want to say something important without being monitored.

Privacy also protects people who never think about it. Big companies or the state can use the lack of privacy to push expensive loans, bad insurance or political ads to the people who are most vulnerable. Without privacy everyone is easier to control.

Think of privacy like the lock on your door or curtains on your window. You dont lock your door because you are a criminal. You do it because you have a right to your own space.

And even if today it doesnt matter that you watched a YouTube video criticising a political party, it could matter in the future. Maybe that party comes into power in 10 years and suddenly everything you ever said online is looked at again. In the UK there were around 12,000 arrests in 2023 alone because of offensive or distressing social media posts.

The takeaway: Privacy is a fundamental right and a safety net for the future. It doesnt just protect you, it protects everyone. Its not about hiding, its about not being monitored and tracked with every step you take.

Sources:
UK Police make 30 arrests a day for offensive online messages
Wikipedia – 533 million Facebook users data leak