Why privacy matters
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0:01 - 0:04There is an entire genre of YouTube videos
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0:04 - 0:06devoted to an experience which
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0:06 - 0:08I am certain that everyone in this room has had.
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0:08 - 0:10It entails an individual who,
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0:10 - 0:12thinking they're alone,
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0:12 - 0:15engages in some expressive behavior —
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0:15 - 0:18wild singing, gyrating dancing,
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0:18 - 0:20some mild sexual activity —
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0:20 - 0:23only to discover that, in fact, they are not alone,
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0:23 - 0:26that there is a person watching and lurking,
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0:26 - 0:28the discovery of which causes them
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0:28 - 0:30to immediately cease what they were doing
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0:30 - 0:31in horror.
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0:31 - 0:34The sense of shame and humiliation
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0:34 - 0:36in their face is palpable.
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0:36 - 0:38It's the sense of,
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0:38 - 0:39"This is something I'm willing to do
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0:39 - 0:43only if no one else is watching."
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0:43 - 0:45This is the crux of the work
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0:45 - 0:47on which I have been singularly focused
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0:47 - 0:49for the last 16 months,
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0:49 - 0:51the question of why privacy matters,
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0:51 - 0:53a question that has arisen
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0:53 - 0:56in the context of a global debate,
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0:56 - 0:59enabled by the revelations of Edward Snowden
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0:59 - 1:01that the United States and its partners,
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1:01 - 1:03unbeknownst to the entire world,
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1:03 - 1:05has converted the Internet,
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1:05 - 1:08once heralded as an unprecedented tool
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1:08 - 1:11of liberation and democratization,
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1:11 - 1:13into an unprecedented zone
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1:13 - 1:17of mass, indiscriminate surveillance.
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1:17 - 1:19There is a very common sentiment
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1:19 - 1:21that arises in this debate,
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1:21 - 1:23even among people who are uncomfortable
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1:23 - 1:25with mass surveillance, which says
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1:25 - 1:27that there is no real harm
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1:27 - 1:29that comes from this large-scale invasion
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1:29 - 1:33because only people who are engaged in bad acts
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1:33 - 1:35have a reason to want to hide
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1:35 - 1:37and to care about their privacy.
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1:37 - 1:40This worldview is implicitly grounded
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1:40 - 1:42in the proposition that there are
two kinds of people in the world, -
1:42 - 1:44good people and bad people.
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1:44 - 1:47Bad people are those who plot terrorist attacks
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1:47 - 1:49or who engage in violent criminality
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1:49 - 1:52and therefore have reasons to
want to hide what they're doing, -
1:52 - 1:54have reasons to care about their privacy.
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1:54 - 1:57But by contrast, good people
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1:57 - 1:59are people who go to work,
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1:59 - 2:02come home, raise their children, watch television.
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2:02 - 2:04They use the Internet not to plot bombing attacks
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2:04 - 2:07but to read the news or exchange recipes
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2:07 - 2:09or to plan their kids' Little League games,
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2:09 - 2:12and those people are doing nothing wrong
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2:12 - 2:14and therefore have nothing to hide
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2:14 - 2:16and no reason to fear
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2:16 - 2:18the government monitoring them.
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2:18 - 2:20The people who are actually saying that
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2:20 - 2:23are engaged in a very extreme act
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2:23 - 2:25of self-deprecation.
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2:25 - 2:26What they're really saying is,
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2:26 - 2:29"I have agreed to make myself
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2:29 - 2:31such a harmless and unthreatening
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2:31 - 2:34and uninteresting person that I actually don't fear
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2:34 - 2:38having the government know what it is that I'm doing."
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2:38 - 2:40This mindset has found what I think
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2:40 - 2:42is its purest expression
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2:42 - 2:44in a 2009 interview with
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2:44 - 2:47the longtime CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, who,
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2:47 - 2:49when asked about all the different ways his company
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2:49 - 2:52is causing invasions of privacy
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2:52 - 2:54for hundreds of millions of people around the world,
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2:54 - 2:56said this: He said,
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2:56 - 2:58"If you're doing something that you don't want
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2:58 - 3:00other people to know,
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3:00 - 3:04maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
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3:04 - 3:06Now, there's all kinds of things to say about
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3:06 - 3:08that mentality,
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3:08 - 3:11the first of which is that the people who say that,
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3:11 - 3:14who say that privacy isn't really important,
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3:14 - 3:17they don't actually believe it,
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3:17 - 3:18and the way you know that
they don't actually believe it -
3:18 - 3:21is that while they say with their
words that privacy doesn't matter, -
3:21 - 3:24with their actions, they take all kinds of steps
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3:24 - 3:27to safeguard their privacy.
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3:27 - 3:29They put passwords on their email
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3:29 - 3:31and their social media accounts,
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3:31 - 3:33they put locks on their bedroom
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3:33 - 3:34and bathroom doors,
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3:34 - 3:37all steps designed to prevent other people
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3:37 - 3:40from entering what they consider their private realm
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3:40 - 3:43and knowing what it is that they
don't want other people to know. -
3:43 - 3:46The very same Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google,
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3:46 - 3:49ordered his employees at Google
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3:49 - 3:51to cease speaking with the online
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3:51 - 3:53Internet magazine CNET
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3:53 - 3:56after CNET published an article
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3:56 - 3:58full of personal, private information
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3:58 - 4:00about Eric Schmidt,
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4:00 - 4:03which it obtained exclusively
through Google searches -
4:03 - 4:06and using other Google products. (Laughter)
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4:06 - 4:08This same division can be seen
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4:08 - 4:11with the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg,
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4:11 - 4:14who in an infamous interview in 2010
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4:14 - 4:17pronounced that privacy is no longer
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4:17 - 4:20a "social norm."
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4:20 - 4:22Last year, Mark Zuckerberg and his new wife
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4:22 - 4:24purchased not only their own house
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4:24 - 4:28but also all four adjacent houses in Palo Alto
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4:28 - 4:30for a total of 30 million dollars
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4:30 - 4:33in order to ensure that they enjoyed a zone of privacy
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4:33 - 4:36that prevented other people from monitoring
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4:36 - 4:39what they do in their personal lives.
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4:39 - 4:42Over the last 16 months, as I've
debated this issue around the world, -
4:42 - 4:44every single time somebody has said to me,
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4:44 - 4:46"I don't really worry about invasions of privacy
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4:46 - 4:47because I don't have anything to hide."
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4:47 - 4:49I always say the same thing to them.
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4:49 - 4:51I get out a pen, I write down my email address.
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4:51 - 4:53I say, "Here's my email address.
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4:53 - 4:55What I want you to do when you get home
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4:55 - 4:57is email me the passwords
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4:57 - 4:58to all of your email accounts,
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4:58 - 5:01not just the nice, respectable work one in your name,
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5:01 - 5:02but all of them,
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5:02 - 5:04because I want to be able to just troll through
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5:04 - 5:06what it is you're doing online,
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5:06 - 5:09read what I want to read and
publish whatever I find interesting. -
5:09 - 5:11After all, if you're not a bad person,
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5:11 - 5:12if you're doing nothing wrong,
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5:12 - 5:15you should have nothing to hide."
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5:15 - 5:19Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.
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5:19 - 5:23I check and — (Applause)
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5:23 - 5:26I check that email account religiously all the time.
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5:26 - 5:29It's a very desolate place.
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5:29 - 5:31And there's a reason for that,
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5:31 - 5:33which is that we as human beings,
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5:33 - 5:35even those of us who in words
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5:35 - 5:38disclaim the importance of our own privacy,
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5:38 - 5:40instinctively understand
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5:40 - 5:42the profound importance of it.
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5:42 - 5:45It is true that as human beings, we're social animals,
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5:45 - 5:47which means we have a need for other people
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5:47 - 5:50to know what we're doing and saying and thinking,
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5:50 - 5:54which is why we voluntarily publish
information about ourselves online. -
5:54 - 5:57But equally essential to what it means
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5:57 - 5:59to be a free and fulfilled human being
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5:59 - 6:01is to have a place that we can go
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6:01 - 6:05and be free of the judgmental eyes of other people.
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6:05 - 6:07There's a reason why we seek that out,
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6:07 - 6:10and our reason is that all of us —
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6:10 - 6:14not just terrorists and criminals, all of us —
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6:14 - 6:16have things to hide.
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6:16 - 6:18There are all sorts of things that we do and think
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6:18 - 6:21that we're willing to tell our physician
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6:21 - 6:25or our lawyer or our psychologist or our spouse
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6:25 - 6:27or our best friend that we would be mortified
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6:27 - 6:29for the rest of the world to learn.
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6:29 - 6:31We make judgments every single day
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6:31 - 6:34about the kinds of things that we say and think and do
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6:34 - 6:36that we're willing to have other people know,
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6:36 - 6:38and the kinds of things that we say and think and do
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6:38 - 6:40that we don't want anyone else to know about.
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6:40 - 6:43People can very easily in words claim
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6:43 - 6:45that they don't value their privacy,
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6:45 - 6:50but their actions negate the authenticity of that belief.
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6:50 - 6:54Now, there's a reason why privacy is so craved
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6:54 - 6:56universally and instinctively.
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6:56 - 6:58It isn't just a reflexive movement
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6:58 - 7:00like breathing air or drinking water.
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7:00 - 7:03The reason is that when we're in a state
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7:03 - 7:06where we can be monitored,
where we can be watched, -
7:06 - 7:08our behavior changes dramatically.
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7:08 - 7:11The range of behavioral options that we consider
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7:11 - 7:13when we think we're being watched
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7:13 - 7:15severely reduce.
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7:15 - 7:17This is just a fact of human nature
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7:17 - 7:20that has been recognized in social science
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7:20 - 7:22and in literature and in religion
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7:22 - 7:24and in virtually every field of discipline.
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7:24 - 7:27There are dozens of psychological studies
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7:27 - 7:29that prove that when somebody knows
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7:29 - 7:31that they might be watched,
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7:31 - 7:32the behavior they engage in
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7:32 - 7:36is vastly more conformist and compliant.
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7:36 - 7:39Human shame is a very powerful motivator,
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7:39 - 7:42as is the desire to avoid it,
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7:42 - 7:44and that's the reason why people,
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7:44 - 7:46when they're in a state of
being watched, make decisions -
7:46 - 7:49not that are the byproduct of their own agency
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7:49 - 7:51but that are about the expectations
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7:51 - 7:53that others have of them
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7:53 - 7:57or the mandates of societal orthodoxy.
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7:57 - 8:00This realization was exploited most powerfully
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8:00 - 8:04for pragmatic ends by the 18th-
century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, -
8:04 - 8:06who set out to resolve an important problem
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8:06 - 8:08ushered in by the industrial age,
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8:08 - 8:11where, for the first time, institutions had become
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8:11 - 8:13so large and centralized
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8:13 - 8:14that they were no longer able to monitor
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8:14 - 8:17and therefore control each one
of their individual members, -
8:17 - 8:19and the solution that he devised
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8:19 - 8:22was an architectural design
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8:22 - 8:24originally intended to be implemented in prisons
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8:24 - 8:27that he called the panopticon,
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8:27 - 8:29the primary attribute of which was the construction
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8:29 - 8:32of an enormous tower in the center of the institution
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8:32 - 8:34where whoever controlled the institution
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8:34 - 8:37could at any moment watch any of the inmates,
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8:37 - 8:40although they couldn't watch all of them at all times.
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8:40 - 8:42And crucial to this design
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8:42 - 8:44was that the inmates could not actually
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8:44 - 8:47see into the panopticon, into the tower,
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8:47 - 8:49and so they never knew
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8:49 - 8:51if they were being watched or even when.
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8:51 - 8:54And what made him so excited about this discovery
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8:54 - 8:56was that that would mean that the prisoners
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8:56 - 8:59would have to assume that they were being watched
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8:59 - 9:01at any given moment,
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9:01 - 9:03which would be the ultimate enforcer
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9:03 - 9:06for obedience and compliance.
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9:06 - 9:09The 20th-century French philosopher Michel Foucault
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9:09 - 9:11realized that that model could be used
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9:11 - 9:14not just for prisons but for every institution
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9:14 - 9:16that seeks to control human behavior:
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9:16 - 9:19schools, hospitals, factories, workplaces.
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9:19 - 9:21And what he said was that this mindset,
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9:21 - 9:24this framework discovered by Bentham,
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9:24 - 9:27was the key means of societal control
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9:27 - 9:29for modern, Western societies,
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9:29 - 9:31which no longer need
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9:31 - 9:33the overt weapons of tyranny —
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9:33 - 9:35punishing or imprisoning or killing dissidents,
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9:35 - 9:39or legally compelling loyalty to a particular party —
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9:39 - 9:41because mass surveillance creates
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9:41 - 9:44a prison in the mind
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9:44 - 9:45that is a much more subtle
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9:45 - 9:47though much more effective means
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9:47 - 9:50of fostering compliance with social norms
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9:50 - 9:52or with social orthodoxy,
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9:52 - 9:53much more effective
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9:53 - 9:56than brute force could ever be.
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9:56 - 9:59The most iconic work of literature about surveillance
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9:59 - 10:03and privacy is the George Orwell novel "1984,"
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10:03 - 10:06which we all learn in school, and
therefore it's almost become a cliche. -
10:06 - 10:08In fact, whenever you bring it up
in a debate about surveillance, -
10:08 - 10:11people instantaneously dismiss it
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10:11 - 10:13as inapplicable, and what they say is,
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10:13 - 10:16"Oh, well in '1984,' there were
monitors in people's homes, -
10:16 - 10:18they were being watched at every given moment,
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10:18 - 10:22and that has nothing to do with
the surveillance state that we face." -
10:22 - 10:25That is an actual fundamental misapprehension
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10:25 - 10:28of the warnings that Orwell issued in "1984."
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10:28 - 10:30The warning that he was issuing
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10:30 - 10:31was about a surveillance state
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10:31 - 10:33not that monitored everybody at all times,
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10:33 - 10:35but where people were aware that they could
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10:35 - 10:37be monitored at any given moment.
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10:37 - 10:40Here is how Orwell's narrator, Winston Smith,
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10:40 - 10:42described the surveillance system
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10:42 - 10:44that they faced:
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10:44 - 10:46"There was, of course, no way of knowing
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10:46 - 10:48whether you were being watched
at any given moment." -
10:48 - 10:50He went on to say,
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10:50 - 10:51"At any rate, they could plug in your wire
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10:51 - 10:53whenever they wanted to.
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10:53 - 10:56You had to live, did live,
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10:56 - 10:58from habit that became instinct,
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10:58 - 11:00in the assumption that every sound you made
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11:00 - 11:03was overheard and except in darkness
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11:03 - 11:05every movement scrutinized."
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11:05 - 11:09The Abrahamic religions similarly posit
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11:09 - 11:12that there's an invisible, all-knowing authority
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11:12 - 11:13who, because of its omniscience,
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11:13 - 11:15always watches whatever you're doing,
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11:15 - 11:18which means you never have a private moment,
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11:18 - 11:20the ultimate enforcer
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11:20 - 11:23for obedience to its dictates.
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11:23 - 11:26What all of these seemingly disparate works
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11:26 - 11:29recognize, the conclusion that they all reach,
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11:29 - 11:31is that a society in which people
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11:31 - 11:34can be monitored at all times
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11:34 - 11:36is a society that breeds conformity
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11:36 - 11:39and obedience and submission,
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11:39 - 11:40which is why every tyrant,
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11:40 - 11:42the most overt to the most subtle,
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11:42 - 11:44craves that system.
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11:44 - 11:47Conversely, even more importantly,
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11:47 - 11:49it is a realm of privacy,
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11:49 - 11:52the ability to go somewhere where we can think
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11:52 - 11:56and reason and interact and speak
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11:56 - 11:59without the judgmental eyes
of others being cast upon us, -
11:59 - 12:03in which creativity and exploration
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12:03 - 12:06and dissent exclusively reside,
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12:06 - 12:08and that is the reason why,
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12:08 - 12:10when we allow a society to exist
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12:10 - 12:12in which we're subject to constant monitoring,
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12:12 - 12:15we allow the essence of human freedom
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12:15 - 12:18to be severely crippled.
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12:18 - 12:21The last point I want to observe about this mindset,
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12:21 - 12:23the idea that only people who
are doing something wrong -
12:23 - 12:27have things to hide and therefore
reasons to care about privacy, -
12:27 - 12:31is that it entrenches two very destructive messages,
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12:31 - 12:33two destructive lessons,
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12:33 - 12:35the first of which is that
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12:35 - 12:37the only people who care about privacy,
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12:37 - 12:39the only people who will seek out privacy,
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12:39 - 12:43are by definition bad people.
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12:43 - 12:45This is a conclusion that we should have
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12:45 - 12:48all kinds of reasons for avoiding,
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12:48 - 12:51the most important of which is that when you say,
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12:51 - 12:53"somebody who is doing bad things,"
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12:53 - 12:56you probably mean things
like plotting a terrorist attack -
12:56 - 12:58or engaging in violent criminality,
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12:58 - 13:01a much narrower conception
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13:01 - 13:03of what people who wield power mean
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13:03 - 13:05when they say, "doing bad things."
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13:05 - 13:07For them, "doing bad things" typically means
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13:07 - 13:10doing something that poses meaningful challenges
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13:10 - 13:14to the exercise of our own power.
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13:14 - 13:15The other really destructive
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13:15 - 13:17and, I think, even more insidious lesson
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13:17 - 13:20that comes from accepting this mindset
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13:20 - 13:23is there's an implicit bargain
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13:23 - 13:26that people who accept this mindset have accepted,
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13:26 - 13:28and that bargain is this:
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13:28 - 13:30If you're willing to render yourself
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13:30 - 13:32sufficiently harmless,
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13:32 - 13:34sufficiently unthreatening
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13:34 - 13:36to those who wield political power,
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13:36 - 13:39then and only then can you be free
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13:39 - 13:41of the dangers of surveillance.
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13:41 - 13:43It's only those who are dissidents,
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13:43 - 13:45who challenge power,
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13:45 - 13:47who have something to worry about.
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13:47 - 13:50There are all kinds of reasons why we
should want to avoid that lesson as well. -
13:50 - 13:52You may be a person who, right now,
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13:52 - 13:54doesn't want to engage in that behavior,
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13:54 - 13:57but at some point in the future you might.
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13:57 - 13:58Even if you're somebody who decides
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13:58 - 14:00that you never want to,
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14:00 - 14:02the fact that there are other people
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14:02 - 14:04who are willing to and able to resist
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14:04 - 14:06and be adversarial to those in power —
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14:06 - 14:08dissidents and journalists
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14:08 - 14:10and activists and a whole range of others —
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14:10 - 14:12is something that brings us all collective good
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14:12 - 14:15that we should want to preserve.
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14:15 - 14:17Equally critical is that the measure
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14:17 - 14:20of how free a society is
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14:20 - 14:22is not how it treats its good,
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14:22 - 14:24obedient, compliant citizens,
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14:24 - 14:26but how it treats its dissidents
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14:26 - 14:29and those who resist orthodoxy.
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14:29 - 14:31But the most important reason
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14:31 - 14:33is that a system of mass surveillance
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14:33 - 14:36suppresses our own freedom in all sorts of ways.
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14:36 - 14:38It renders off-limits
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14:38 - 14:40all kinds of behavioral choices
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14:40 - 14:43without our even knowing that it's happened.
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14:43 - 14:46The renowned socialist activist Rosa Luxemburg
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14:46 - 14:48once said, "He who does not move
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14:48 - 14:51does not notice his chains."
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14:51 - 14:53We can try and render the chains
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14:53 - 14:56of mass surveillance invisible or undetectable,
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14:56 - 14:59but the constraints that it imposes on us
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14:59 - 15:01do not become any less potent.
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15:01 - 15:03Thank you very much.
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15:03 - 15:04(Applause)
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15:04 - 15:06Thank you.
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15:06 - 15:11(Applause)
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15:11 - 15:13Thank you.
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15:13 - 15:16(Applause)
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15:19 - 15:22Bruno Giussani: Glenn, thank you.
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15:22 - 15:24The case is rather convincing, I have to say,
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15:24 - 15:25but I want to bring you back
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15:25 - 15:29to the last 16 months and to Edward Snowden
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15:29 - 15:31for a few questions, if you don't mind.
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15:31 - 15:33The first one is personal to you.
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15:33 - 15:36We have all read about the arrest of your partner,
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15:36 - 15:40David Miranda in London, and other difficulties,
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15:40 - 15:42but I assume that
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15:42 - 15:45in terms of personal engagement and risk,
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15:45 - 15:47that the pressure on you is not that easy
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15:47 - 15:50to take on the biggest sovereign
organizations in the world. -
15:50 - 15:52Tell us a little bit about that.
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15:52 - 15:54Glenn Greenwald: You know, I think
one of the things that happens -
15:54 - 15:56is that people's courage in this regard
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15:56 - 15:58gets contagious,
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15:58 - 16:01and so although I and the other
journalists with whom I was working -
16:01 - 16:03were certainly aware of the risk —
-
16:03 - 16:05the United States continues to be
the most powerful country in the world -
16:05 - 16:07and doesn't appreciate it when you
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16:07 - 16:09disclose thousands of their secrets
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16:09 - 16:12on the Internet at will —
-
16:12 - 16:15seeing somebody who is a 29-year-old
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16:15 - 16:17ordinary person who grew up in
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16:17 - 16:20a very ordinary environment
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16:20 - 16:23exercise the degree of principled
courage that Edward Snowden risked, -
16:23 - 16:26knowing that he was going to go
to prison for the rest of his life -
16:26 - 16:27or that his life would unravel,
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16:27 - 16:29inspired me and inspired other journalists
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16:29 - 16:31and inspired, I think, people around the world,
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16:31 - 16:33including future whistleblowers,
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16:33 - 16:36to realize that they can engage
in that kind of behavior as well. -
16:36 - 16:39BG: I'm curious about your
relationship with Ed Snowden, -
16:39 - 16:42because you have spoken with him a lot,
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16:42 - 16:44and you certainly continue doing so,
-
16:44 - 16:46but in your book, you never call him Edward,
-
16:46 - 16:50nor Ed, you say "Snowden." How come?
-
16:50 - 16:51GG: You know, I'm sure that's something
-
16:51 - 16:55for a team of psychologists to examine.
(Laughter) -
16:55 - 16:58I don't really know. The reason I think that,
-
16:58 - 17:02one of the important objectives that he actually had,
-
17:02 - 17:04one of his, I think, most important tactics,
-
17:04 - 17:07was that he knew that one of the ways
-
17:07 - 17:09to distract attention from the
substance of the revelations -
17:09 - 17:12would be to try and personalize the focus on him,
-
17:12 - 17:14and for that reason, he stayed out of the media.
-
17:14 - 17:16He tried not to ever have his personal life
-
17:16 - 17:18subject to examination,
-
17:18 - 17:21and so I think calling him Snowden
-
17:21 - 17:24is a way of just identifying him
as this important historical actor -
17:24 - 17:26rather than trying to personalize him in a way
-
17:26 - 17:29that might distract attention from the substance.
-
17:29 - 17:31Moderator: So his revelations, your analysis,
-
17:31 - 17:32the work of other journalists,
-
17:32 - 17:35have really developed the debate,
-
17:35 - 17:38and many governments, for example, have reacted,
-
17:38 - 17:40including in Brazil, with projects and programs
-
17:40 - 17:43to reshape a little bit the design of the Internet, etc.
-
17:43 - 17:46There are a lot of things going on in that sense.
-
17:46 - 17:48But I'm wondering, for you personally,
-
17:48 - 17:50what is the endgame?
-
17:50 - 17:51At what point will you think,
-
17:51 - 17:54well, actually, we've succeeded
in moving the dial? -
17:54 - 17:57GG: Well, I mean, the endgame for me as a journalist
-
17:57 - 17:59is very simple, which is to make sure
-
17:59 - 18:01that every single document that's newsworthy
-
18:01 - 18:03and that ought to be disclosed
-
18:03 - 18:04ends up being disclosed,
-
18:04 - 18:06and that secrets that should never
have been kept in the first place -
18:06 - 18:08end up uncovered.
-
18:08 - 18:10To me, that's the essence of journalism
-
18:10 - 18:11and that's what I'm committed to doing.
-
18:11 - 18:14As somebody who finds mass surveillance odious
-
18:14 - 18:16for all the reasons I just talked about and a lot more,
-
18:16 - 18:18I mean, I look at this as work that will never end
-
18:18 - 18:21until governments around the world
-
18:21 - 18:23are no longer able to subject entire populations
-
18:23 - 18:25to monitoring and surveillance
-
18:25 - 18:27unless they convince some court or some entity
-
18:27 - 18:29that the person they've targeted
-
18:29 - 18:32has actually done something wrong.
-
18:32 - 18:35To me, that's the way that
privacy can be rejuvenated. -
18:35 - 18:37BG: So Snowden is very,
as we've seen at TED, -
18:37 - 18:40is very articulate in presenting and portraying himself
-
18:40 - 18:42as a defender of democratic values
-
18:42 - 18:44and democratic principles.
-
18:44 - 18:47But then, many people really
find it difficult to believe -
18:47 - 18:49that those are his only motivations.
-
18:49 - 18:51They find it difficult to believe
-
18:51 - 18:52that there was no money involved,
-
18:52 - 18:54that he didn't sell some of those secrets,
-
18:54 - 18:56even to China and to Russia,
-
18:56 - 18:59which are clearly not the best friends
-
18:59 - 19:01of the United States right now.
-
19:01 - 19:03And I'm sure many people in the room
-
19:03 - 19:05are wondering the same question.
-
19:05 - 19:07Do you consider it possible there is
-
19:07 - 19:09that part of Snowden we've not seen yet?
-
19:09 - 19:13GG: No, I consider that absurd and idiotic.
-
19:13 - 19:15(Laughter) If you wanted to,
-
19:15 - 19:17and I know you're just playing devil's advocate,
-
19:17 - 19:21but if you wanted to sell
-
19:21 - 19:23secrets to another country,
-
19:23 - 19:24which he could have done and become
-
19:24 - 19:26extremely rich doing so,
-
19:26 - 19:28the last thing you would
do is take those secrets -
19:28 - 19:31and give them to journalists and
ask journalists to publish them, -
19:31 - 19:33because it makes those secrets worthless.
-
19:33 - 19:34People who want to enrich themselves
-
19:34 - 19:36do it secretly by selling
secrets to the government, -
19:36 - 19:38but I think there's one important point worth making,
-
19:38 - 19:40which is, that accusation comes from
-
19:40 - 19:42people in the U.S. government,
-
19:42 - 19:44from people in the media who are loyalists
-
19:44 - 19:46to these various governments,
-
19:46 - 19:49and I think a lot of times when people make accusations like that about other people —
-
19:49 - 19:51"Oh, he can't really be doing this
-
19:51 - 19:52for principled reasons,
-
19:52 - 19:54he must have some corrupt, nefarious reason" —
-
19:54 - 19:57they're saying a lot more about themselves
-
19:57 - 19:58than they are the target of their accusations,
-
19:58 - 20:03because — (Applause) —
-
20:03 - 20:05those people, the ones who make that accusation,
-
20:05 - 20:07they themselves never act
-
20:07 - 20:09for any reason other than corrupt reasons,
-
20:09 - 20:11so they assume
-
20:11 - 20:13that everybody else is plagued by the same disease
-
20:13 - 20:15of soullessness as they are,
-
20:15 - 20:17and so that's the assumption.
-
20:17 - 20:19(Applause)
-
20:19 - 20:21BG: Glenn, thank you very much.
GG: Thank you very much. -
20:21 - 20:24BG: Glenn Greenwald.
-
20:24 - 20:25(Applause)
- Title:
- Why privacy matters
- Speaker:
- Glenn Greenwald
- Description:
-
Glenn Greenwald was one of the first reporters to see — and write about — the Edward Snowden files, with their revelations about the United States' extensive surveillance of private citizens. In this searing talk, Greenwald makes the case for why you need to care about privacy, even if you’re “not doing anything you need to hide."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 20:37
Arzhang Shaygan Sham'asbi commented on English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Why privacy matters | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for Why privacy matters |
Arzhang Shaygan Sham'asbi
Between 15:47 and 15:50: "to take on the biggest sovereign organizations in the world."
The word "sovereign" is not correct. The moderator is speaking about biggest "surveillance" organizations not "sovereign" organizations.