I have said that to my friends many times and I always get the same response, "I got nothing to hide", and that exasperates me, it seems that people little by little are being conditioned by Facebook and other social media networks to not care about their privacy at all and somehow make people like me the weird ones just because I do not post every single aspect of my life in a social network, and quite honestly I do not see a way to reverse this tendency.
Completely agree. I'll quote myself from another thread a few months ago below with some links regarding the incredibly stupid "nothing to hide" argument. Perhaps they might be of some help in showing your friends why they are incorrect.
The problem, I think, is that privacy has become a commodity to be traded, and is no longer a right to be protected. As you correctly point out, this is because of companies like Facebook and Google conditioning people to give up their privacy in return for some minor convenience or feature. Here's a handy site to stay in touch with your friends - all you have to do is tell us
everything about you. Here's a handy app to recommend restaurants in your area - all you have to do is let us track your movements in real time. Here's a handy device which will let you choose which song to listen to with just your voice - all you have to do is let us record
everything you say. Unfortunately, such attitudes are spilling over more and more in to crypto. Here's a handy website which will let you trade bitcoin - all you have to do is give us your name, address, email, phone number, social security number, employment history, income, a copy of your passport, a copy of your driver's license, a copy of your household bills, a selfie, facial recognition...
All these things - chatting with friends right through to trading bitcoin - can be done without compromising your privacy. Unfortunately, people generally don't care about protecting their privacy until it is completely compromised.
I don't need to spend a lot of time dismantling the "nothing to hide" argument,
because it is already widely discredited. I will share one of my favorite quotes on the topic though:
The old cliché is often mocked though basically true: there’s no reason to worry about surveillance if you have nothing to hide. That mindset creates the incentive to be as compliant and inconspicuous as possible: those who think that way decide it’s in their best interests to provide authorities with as little reason as possible to care about them. That’s accomplished by never stepping out of line. Those willing to live their lives that way will be indifferent to the loss of privacy because they feel that they lose nothing from it. Above all else, that’s what a Surveillance State does: it breeds fear of doing anything out of the ordinary by creating a class of meek citizens who know they are being constantly watched.