Symmetric loss of privacy?

Particularly with modern web applications we voluntarily give up a certain degree of privacy, so that we can enjoy the benefits that we perceive from those applications. On the one hand this is something that we largely opt in for, but on the other this is certainly not a straightforward discussion and the privacy debate is increasingly a complex one.

In Privacy Is Dead – Long Live Surveillance Symmetry, Jakob Eriksson describes an interesting view on our current landscape of increasingly changing privacy expectations. His main point: We would not be as concerned about losing our privacy, if those spying on us lost it equally.

If we weren’t so careful about hiding our differences from each other, we’d come to realize that not fitting the standard stereotype is the real norm. If you’re not an alcoholic, a neat freak, in debt to your ears, battling hair loss, having an affair with the neighbor’s wife, or something equally shocking, then something is probably wrong with you, not with the rest of us. I believe technology will force this societal change to happen, but even if it didn’t, it really is time we all grew up and came out of our respective closets.

In a recent tragedy, a college student committed suicide after a revealing video was posted online. My hypothesis is that the problem wasn’t that he was doing anything wrong in the video or even anything particularly unusual or shameful. Fundamentally, this was a problem of information asymmetry. While the rest of the world could all see him in his most private moment, this insecure young fellow couldn’t see them in theirs, and it was too much to bear.

It is an interesting thought. I also do not think that this could be a complete answer.

Would travelers at airports be more accepting of being examined with backscatter x-ray machines, if they could also view images of security personnel that were produced by those machines, when that staff was examined?

Would we be understanding, if our neighbors positioned motion-activated cameras to capture the activities in our home, if we did the same to them?

Many, many more examples can be imagined. Like so often, I think the answer here is: It depends. What is acceptable for one person in one context will not be for a different person or in a different context.