[anotheraccount7]

I think the postcards example hurts his argument.

People send postcards all the time precisely because for the most part they don't care about privacy in their mail. In my personal life I can't think of a single example where I sent mail that I wanted to keep private (outside of maybe mail that had my SS#). I think most people are rather indifferent.

"If you hide your mail inside envelopes, does that mean you must be a subversive or a drug dealer, or maybe a paranoid nut" The main function of the envelope is to tied a bunch of papers together so they don't get separated in the mail.

[noonespecial]

So it would be OK if your bank statements came rubberbanded together (or in transparent plastic "patriot envelopes") with your balances showing (for your convenience)? How about credit card statements showing what you owe? The results of that HIV test maybe?

[Perseids]

No no no, if you argue like this you have already chosen the wrong battleground for this debate. Your Email and meta data is not open to everyone but only to a (")trusted(") third party: to law enforcement. People (rightly) assume that the stuff that most of the people want to keep private from their peers (conflicts with their spouse, sexual orientation and kinks, financial status, health issues) isn't of interesting to the NSA data analyzer.

The real problems arise if data is put together and interpreted against your will and probably without your knowledge. Imagine an ad network that combines your location profile, your Payback data and name/address and sells that to an insurance company which decides to not have you as a customer, because your are probably overweight (drives by car, no visits to any places associated with sport, buys a lot of food). Or imagine an automated alarm that is triggered when you try to enter the country, because you travel with three coworkers from Iraq and you have written an email to your friend telling him you intend to "devastate the USA" (meaning to beat the American branch of your company in a friendly soccer game after work). You cannot rectify these misunderstandings as nobody is telling you why you now always get the special attention of the TSA or why your insurance application is denied.

This is the stuff I really dread in the current focus on big data.

A great article on the same topic: https://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/12...

[rlpb]

> People (rightly) assume that the stuff that most of the people want to keep private from their peers (conflicts with their spouse, sexual orientation and kinks, financial status, health issues) isn't of interesting to the NSA data analyzer.

Are you so sure about this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/nsa-porn-muslims_n_...

[anotheraccount7]

That doesn't bother me at all. Other than your medical information, I'm pretty sure the government already knows all that information. And I'm not really sure how them knowing my HIV status leave me at a disadvantage.

[Shivetya]

Well they are currently fixing that part about not knowing your medical information. People are far too willing to give up their privacy if they can save a buck

[cookiecaper]

The ability to read words and figures plainly exposed isn't restricted to the government.

[ams6110]

It might if they ever decide that HIV positive folks are too expensive to keep treating.

[superuser2]

This is the case with every insurer (unless one operated blind and didn't know what it was cutting checks for?) but government at least answers to anti-discrimination standards. If this became normal practice among insurers, then you'd be entirely screwed.

[anotheraccount7]

except that's not in the realm of reality for the US...

[daveid]

I think there's a misunderstanding. The author doesn't mean actual postcards – like holiday greetings and the like – those are actually sent in the public and nobody cares. The author means sending letters without envelopes.

[dreamfactory]

How about asking people how they would feel if curtains were made illegal?