An accessible guide that breaks down the complex issues around mass surveillance and data privacy and explores the negative consequences it can have on individual citizens and their communities

Many Americans assume that their government does not monitor them as closely as authoritarian governments, but that is simply not true. After the 9/11 attacks, domestic surveillance increased exponentially in the name of national security, and many Americans continue to believe that providing unlimited access to their data is necessary to be a dutiful citizen. However, attorney and data privacy expert Heidi Boghosian argues that the ongoing effects of increased surveillance do not protect Americans from attack, but rather makes them even more vulnerable.

Boghosian unpacks the widespread myths around data privacy and data mining and sets the record straight about what government agencies and corporations do with our personal data and what we can do to protect ourselves. Before the 2016 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica harvested data from 50 million Americans on Facebook without their consent - creating hyper-targeted ads that were designed influence voter behavior. Law enforcement agencies have drawn upon personal data to cobble together criminal charges against civil rights and antiwar activists for decades- and as recently as 2020, police have used social media usage to target and press charges against Black Lives Matter protesters. In this book, Boghosian breaks down the misinformation surrounding 21 core issues of data privacy, including:

  •   "No one wants to spy on kids"
  •   "Police don't monitor social media"
  •   "The USA doesn't spy as much as authoritarian regimes"
  •   "There's nothing I can do to stop surveillance."

"I Have Nothing to Hide" is a necessary overview into mass surveillance for anyone who is searching to better understand what data is being collected, who is collecting it, and why it matters.

Heidi Boghosian is an attorney and co-host of Law & Disorder Radio. She is executive director of the A.J. Muste Institute, a charitable foundation supporting activist organizations. She was previously executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Boghosian has written numerous articles and reports on policing and activism, and is the author of Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance She received her JD from Temple Law School where she was editor in chief of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review.

Introduction

PART ONE: PERSONAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY

MYTH 1
“Smart homes are more secure”

MYTH 2
“I have nothing to hide, so I have nothing to fear”

MYTH 3
“Encryption and anonymity tools—those are for terrorists!”

MYTH 4
“We should worry about government, not corporate, surveillance”

MYTH 5
“The USA doesn’t have national ID numbers”

MYTH 6
“Surveillance drones are just for war”

MYTH 7
“Surveillance makes the nation safer”

PART TWO: PROTECTIONS AND IMMUNITIES

MYTH 8
“No one wants to spy on kids”

MYTH 9
“Police don’t monitor social media”

MYTH 10
“Biometrics technologies are foolproof”

MYTH 11
“Metadata doesn’t reveal much about me”

MYTH 12
“The constitution protects reporters and their sources”

MYTH 13
“The attorney—client privilege is sacrosanct”

MYTH 14
“They can’t design devices and platforms for privacy”

MYTH 15
“Congress and courts protect us from surveillance”

PART THREE: IMPACT ON AUTONOMY, COMMUNITY, AND SOCIETY

MYTH 16
“Surveillance doesn’t influence how I act”

MYTH 17
“Teenagers don’t care about privacy”

MYTH 18
“Surveillance affects everyone equally”

MYTH 19
“‘If You See Something, Say Something’ is a civic duty”

MYTH 20
“Surveillance can’t predict future behavior”

MYTH 21
“There’s nothing I can do to stop surveillance”

Surveillance and Privacy Timeline
Acknowledgments
Notes