[swombat]

The second problem with "nothing to hide" is that it's really "nothing to hide based on today's laws". Laws change. Things become illegal or looked down upon that were previously just fine. What you did with a peaceful conscience today could be used to throw you in jail in 20 years.

The third problem is that due to the complexity of the penal code, this is already the case. You have already done stuff in the last 10 years, that you didn't think was illegal, but somewhere in the tens of thousands of pages of the penal code someone can find a reason to throw you in jail if they have enough information about you. As Richelieu put it, "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." - the NSA has billions of lines about you. They can hang you a million times over.

[adaml_623]

I agree with you 100% but I'm trying to formulate an argument that works on people who really believe that there is no way that 'they' could ever break the law and will never do anything that might make 'someone' want to pick on them. I want to demonstrate to them that there are other people who are doing important things for society and those people need to be protected too.

[lifeformed]

Everyone keeps saying that everyone has committed a jail-able offense if you just look hard enough, but no one has any examples. I'm not denying that it's true, I just have no response if someone says, "like what?"

Are there any examples of crimes that many people have probably committed? Maybe software piracy, but isn't that just a fine? And I hope that isn't the only example.

[286c8cb04bda]

> Are there any examples of crimes that many people have probably committed?

Have you ever ordered anything off Amazon? Did you declare and pay the appropriate use taxes for what you bought? Did you ever discuss with anyone that buying things off Amazon meant there was no tax?

Depending on where you live, that's tax fraud and conspiracy to commit. If you had the discussion over email or on a message board, then it's an inter-state crime...

[chrismarlow9]

http://ask.metafilter.com/55124/What-laws-do-noncriminals-co...

http://www.dumblaws.com/random-laws

They've basically "al caponed" the entire US. If they can't get you on one thing, they'll get you on another. Oddly enough, taxes are probably something everyone has broken the law on. Do you really report everything to the last penny? No? Oh, well theres tax evasion.

[nsxwolf]

Finding your kid's drug stash and punishing him by flushing it down the toilet is probably possession. I certainly would rather it remain private than find out via government prosecution.