# Privacy Does Not Matter
by Alan Smithee

Last year, I wrote down some [tips on locking down data and protecting
privacy](https://opensource.com/life/16/1/how-increase-online-privacy),
discussing PGP email encryption, ownCloud (you might be interested in
trying [nextCloud](https://nextcloud.com/) if you've not already
invested in ownCloud), and the concept of online identity.

This year, I thought I'd write the counterpoint to that article: a
legitimate, non-sarcastic argument about why online privacy is *not*
important.

## Robots are not People

A common argument in favour of increasing online privacy is "if you
don't care about privacy, then why do you close your door or your
window blinds?"

It may seem there's an analogy here, but actually it's skewed. If I
leave the door to my apartment open, I know when someone strolls past
and glances inside. And if the person stands in the hallway, staring,
I can stare back; there's a human connection being made, and it might
be pleasant or it might be creepy, but it exists.

When my online data is scraped by an automated script, that's not a
loss of privacy, it's a robot. It's no more an invasion of my privacy
than when an automated vacuum cleaner runs across my apartment floor.

You might then create the theoretical situation of when someone on the
street looks through my open window. Surely that's an invasion of privacy,
so how is it different when someone gets lucky and bruteforces my
email password and looks through my digital stuff?

There are two differences there. First, one of these situations is
almost inevitable: if I leave my curtains drawn, people passing buy
can, and many will, look inside. And they would see me doing mundane,
everyday things, mostly in front of a text console. I would not,
however, leave my personal records or credit card numbers lying out
for all to jot down as they pass.

But in order for someone to break into my email account and have a
rummage through my emails, they'd have to target me personally, or at
least have my email address in their weekly block of scheduled
bruteforce attempts, at which point they would likely find my password
too much trouble to bruteforce, and move on. The reason I want to keep
these people out of my email isn't because I'm embarrassed about the
flowery poems I send to my girlfriend or the silly things I say to my
family, it's because I have no interest in my account being used to
spam people. Simple as that.

As with leaving my window curtains open, I also would not and do not
leave credit card numbers or login information lying around in my
email account. If a friend really wanted to look through all of my emails,