The Nothing To Hide Argument By Daniel Solove Analysis

The Debate of Privacy from the Government
A Critic of “The Nothing to Hide Argument”
The author of this article is Daniel J. Solove. He discusses the different perspectives and opinions of various people of the government’s control of viewing personal information. The article demonstrates this through examples of what people say, book references, and the opinion of the article himself. In the article, “The Nothing to Hide Argument”, Daniel J. Solove argues that the information- gathering programs the government uses to track and record information from people are problematic.(739) This still remains the case even if the information gathered from these programs was information people did not mind being uncovered. (739).
Some people discussed in this argument claim that they ultimately have nothing to hide from anyone or the government. This take place not only in the United States, but it recalls that these statements of people have nothing to hide happens in Britain too. Because of their thinking and believing they are an open book, they promote the
government’s attempts to wiretap to identify any possible terrorist threats. How they would do this is by monitoring cell phone calls, observing emails sent and received, and even he actions of society. The problem of the “Nothing to Hide” article is a false sense of having nothing to hide and misinterpretations of someone’s actions or conversation by the government. Highlighting things that people want to hide are efforts some commentators make to argue that everyone has something to hide. (739)A person would not want to be photographed naked and have that picture revealed or leaked to the whole community. That would provoke the sense of privacy thus proving that people have things to hide. The article also states that when someone wants to keep something private or concealed, outside viewers automatically assume the negative intensions. It uses examples of literature by George Orwell and Franz Kafka to demonstrate metaphorically what privacy people need and what privacy is being evoked. Solove presents the book named “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell. The book highlights the government eye on all of society. Big Brother represents the metaphorical man/ government watching everyone in society. Solove also argues that with the government taping into the public’s life, they could be misinterpreting what the public intensions are. It gives the example of aggregation, exclusion, secondary use, and distortion. The author of the argument then discusses a law professor by the name of Ann Bartow who thinks privacy is threatened by many small acts or accretion. (747) In response, the claims presented in the argument of the article “Nothing to hide”, opens the eyes to the fact that everyone has something to hide and not everything can expose itself.
The book by George Orwell brought to life this point and is relatable to high schools students due to this reading the curriculum. The book demonstrated what a totalitarian government would look like and what it would look like for the government to have the power of monitoring citizens and a day to day basis. As independent college students, freedom is desired and shuns in a way unnecessary restrictions and regulations. Having terrorism haunt our nation though, it subjects citizen’s caution and want to have more security, but it can be done in other fashions besides wiretapping. Presented examples of privacy issues that everyone deals with that could influence someone to not agree with the government having access to
information.