'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy

28 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2007 Last revised: 27 Feb 2014

Abstract

In this short essay, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the nothing to hide argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: "I've got nothing to hide." According to the nothing to hide argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The nothing to hide argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the nothing to hide argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings.

Keywords: privacy, nothing to hide, data mining, surveillance

JEL Classification: C80, D80

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Solove, Daniel J., 'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy. San Diego Law Review, Vol. 44, p. 745, 2007; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 289. Available at SSRN:

https://ssrn.com/abstract=998565

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