--Originally published at TC2027 – Miguel 101

“El que nada debe, nada teme”

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” it’s a very common phrase (my parents use it a lot), and when it comes to our daily lives on the web, it’s used a lot (specially by the government).

We all know about those cases like the dispute between Apple  and the FBI on the San Bernardino attacks. A judge asked Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” by helping them unlock the attacker’s iPhone.
At the time, the only way to do this was to write some kind of master key capable of unlocking the device (and every other iPhone too). Obviously, Apple refused because creating such a powerful backdoor into their devices would have easily fired back to they customers (either by hackers finding a way to replicate this master key or straight ahead by being used by the government for surveillance. Looking at you, NSA).

Whenever these kind of news rise up to the mainstream media, again, you get your typical internet user making use of that phrase I started this post.

“Why are iPhone users so against this backdoor the FBI is asking for?
It’s gonna help them get the bad guy! If they have nothing to hide they shouldn’t have nothing to fear!”

But if you stop for a second and think about it, this famous phrase doesn’t even make sense. As Edward Snowden would put it:

“…Privacy isn’t about something to hide. Privacy is about something to protect. That’s who you are. That’s what you believe in. Privacy is the right to a self. Privacy is what gives you the ability to share with the world who you are on your own terms. For them to understand what you’re trying to be and to protect

Continue reading "Stay safe on the web" →