 There are really two kinds of people out there in the world There are those that value their privacy and there are those that do not value their privacy or more So there are those that value privacy and those that value convenience that second group of people the ones that value Convenience rather than privacy. They are a dangerous group of people because that idea that they are espousing is Probably the most dangerous idea that one could try to spread think about the world We live in every day people are imprisoned beheaded demoted fired censured simply because They dared to say something they dare to express themselves. That was their crime. That was all they did all they did was they open their mouth They flap their lips some air vibrated, you know between their lips and somebody got offended or in the case of being online Somebody typed something out. They banged it out on the keyboard and whatever it is They typed offended somebody it hurt somebody's feelings and therefore that person was persecuted and Maybe lost their freedom Potentially that person could lose their life now. I get it You know sometimes somebody types something out on a web form or on social media and they type something that hurts your feelings Right, it makes you feel sad or stupid or it alienates you in some way Well, guess what that's your problem toughen up cupcake welcome to the world because This is what happens in the real world people engage and if you don't like the ideas that somebody else is expressing too bad That's the price of admission to the marketplace of ideas and a healthy society includes the free exchange of ideas The true measure of whether or not you live in a free society is the fact that these people have the right to voice their ideas they can express themselves in this way and they can express ideas of Anger and bigotry and prejudice and ignorance and vulgarity and blasphemy and all these negative things Don't be put off by this kind of expression. This is not a bad thing because if all the words that you are hearing in your Conversations are fair and good and true Then honestly you need to take a good hard look around at your surroundings because wherever it is you are in the world I promise you they are not placing a high value on freedom now some people are overly sensitive There are a lot of people out there that they are damaged broken people They can't bear to hear any kind of negativity. They can't bear to read any kind of negativity online You know, they just want all the mean people to go away They want all those trolls to go away and they want this at any cost and they are even willing to give up all their Online privacy to make this happen. Even if it means giving up your online privacy not just their privacy They want to give up everybody's right to privacy as long as it makes all the mean people go away These are the people that are okay with all these online entities mining your data They're okay with this massive government surveillance. That's going on They are okay with all these new asinine laws that are being proposed trying to outlaw encryption They're okay with all of this because they don't want to get their feelings hurt online That's all that's all it's about they have really small feelings and they would don't want to get hurt anymore online so they're willing to give up all of their freedom all of their privacy and They claim that really they have nothing to hide anyway. So why not just give up all this privacy, right? There I have nothing to hide you hear that argument all the time the nothing to hide argument Because according to these people the only people that have anything to hide the only people that really want to be private and Anonymous on the internet you have to be a terrorist a drug dealer or a sex trafficker to want online anonymity The nothing to hide argument is especially naive because all these people that are saying, you know All the data mining and surveillance is really only a threat if you're doing something bad or doing something wrong You're doing something illegal, right? These guys. I've got nothing to hide Well, the truth is we all have something to hide. We all have secrets. We have secrets that we haven't shared with anyone We have things that we've done in our past that we've never publicly shared a matter of fact as soon as I said that I know you guys immediately something popped in your mind of something You've done that you've never told a soul about right the spring break down in Tijuana with the girl with the really big hands and the Adam's apple. Yeah, we all have something to hide now one of the arguments from the anti anonymity crowd is that people that are Anonymous are usually mean and hateful Right, so the argument goes something like this You know, I was over on 4chan and the 4chan people were mean and hateful to me because they're all anonymous And if you're anonymous, you can be mean and hateful or all of my troll emails that I get They all seem to come from anonymous email sources. So if we just get rid of the ability to send anonymous email I won't get any more troll emails. Well, let's think about these arguments for a second Why are you even on 4chan? Which is an anonymous message board, right? If you have a problem with people being anonymous online, why are you hanging out on 4chan to begin with? So really unless you're under the age of about eight, you know, if you're a child I can understand you complaining But if you're an adult really the first rule of being a grown-up is don't ever complain about something that you don't have To subject yourself to and you chose to subject yourself to this You have no right to complain about the way you're treated on 4chan when you chose to hang out on 4chan And nasty emails. How did these people get your email address? Did you share it publicly? If you chose to share your email address publicly, you know For example, I have a YouTube channel and I often will put my email address out there publicly For viewers of the channel to email me and if somebody decides to send me a really nasty email And I get them all the time hundreds of them right troll emails I get threatening emails and the death threats. I get some crazy stuff in my email I don't ever complain about it. You know, I don't make videos about it Why it's because I subjected myself to that so therefore I'm not gonna complain about it I put a public email out there. I can't then complain about people Emailing me. I mean I asked for people to email me and then they email me Maybe I don't like what they have to say in the email But oh well, I put it out there and I know some of you guys are like, you know I'm not a public figure, you know, so I'm not sharing my email publicly But I'm still getting troll emails or spam emails, especially. Well, I get it You didn't put your email out there publicly and you're still getting bombarded by these scandalous people sending you all this crap email But how did these people get your email address? Think about that. Well, I'll go ahead and tell you how they got it Some online entity data-mined you and then sold your information to the spammers That's how they got your email address. Now, this might not have happened had you taken the proper precautions Oddly enough had you tried to remain private and anonymous on the internet Then this online entity that data-mined you may have not been able to data-mine you They may not have been able to steal your personal information such as your email address And then therefore sell it to the spammers Now it is shocking to me that so many people when asked will actually admit That they would be happy to give up some or even all of their privacy If it meant that it would stop all the nasty and toxic messages and emails and forum posts and social media posts and everything That they are subjected to on the internet, right? If I don't have to get my feelings hurt any longer on the internet I would be happy to give up all of my privacy Now the ridiculousness of that particular position should be obvious, but I think it's best summed up in this quote from Edward Snowden Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying that you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say Now think about that. One of the really disturbing things that the anti-anonymity crowd does is they try to downplay the numbers of people that have legitimate need for online anonymity They make it seem like that unless you're living in some third world piss pot country that's ruled by some egomaniacal dictator You really don't have a good use case for needing to be anonymous online and that's simply not the case Matter of fact that argument is completely absurd. That's not just absurd. That argument is dangerous Many people need online anonymity. Some of the reasons that come to mind include Anyone that would be persecuted because of their political or religious beliefs A gay teenager in an oppressive family who maybe wants to read gay literature or chat with gay friends How about a young woman that is secretly pregnant and is looking for health information? How about a domestic violence victim that is maybe searching for help, searching for maybe a hotline number to try to get away from that abusive partner What about an employee that's witnessed a corporate crime and wants to report it to a journalist? What about a government employee that's wanting to expose some kind of illegal thing going on, maybe an illegal surveillance operation? What about just regular internet users like you and me? Maybe we just don't want to be datamined anymore Maybe we don't want to be datamined anymore by online entities such as Google, Facebook and the various three-letter government agencies Now for those of you wanting to improve your privacy on the internet, there's some really good privacy tools out there Things like HTTPS everywhere, you guys know that particular browser plugin that really helps with your HTTPS web encryption Also just having common sense regarding strong passwords, create strong passwords, maybe use a random password generator And have separate passwords for all your online accounts You could use something like a VPN, virtual private network to help with your privacy You could use GPG email encryption, you could use anonymous browsing through Tor You could use the TILS operating system which allows you to use the internet in an anonymous way You could use your browser's private or incognito mode that kind of helps you avoid being datamined by certain online entities Also your computer, you could use something like full disk encryption that also helps protect you a little bit Now the people that for whatever reason are anti-anonymity, you know, they want people not to have the right to be anonymous I really hope that I can change their mind because I listed so many different kinds of people that really need to be anonymous on the internet They have a legitimate need, them not being anonymous could actually put them in danger And even if for whatever reason you can't relate to any of the scenarios that I put forward earlier in this video I hope you guys understand that that does not negate the fact that there are all these millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people in the world that have legitimate reasons why they need to be anonymous on the internet And what's really sad is most of the people that need these privacy options the most, they don't even know they exist And that's why it's so important for people that have a platform, people like myself, you know, I have a rather large platform to speak on, right? It's so important for somebody like me to speak out on these matters because I think I would be derelict in my duties as an advocate for the free software movement if I didn't speak on this matter In fact, if I claim to be a champion of free and open source software, yet I oppose the idea of digital privacy and online anonymity Then really, I would be betraying the very movement that I claim to be championing In fact, I would be a complete and total fraud So what we really need to be doing is encouraging as many people as possible to use things like Tor and Tails and VPNs and encrypted emails, encrypted chat and messaging, encrypted hard disk You know, using privacy respecting web services, things like that Because if you think about it, you know, there's strength in numbers Once we get enough people using these things, then all the corporate data mining and government surveillance, it's essentially neutered, right? We just cut it off at the knees Also, the more people that are using these privacy apps and services, then the better these apps and services become Because these apps and services are going to see more developers, more bug reports, faster patching, a faster patching of potential security issues In closing, I just want to state what should be obvious to everyone Innocent people are threatened, imprisoned and killed every day due to internet data mining and surveillance We know this, I know this, you know this And if we are not out there fighting for those people, then at the very least we're complacent in what's being done to them Not speaking up? Well, there's a famous quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people Now, before I go, I need to thank a few people I need to thank the producers of this episode I need to thank Michael, Gabe, Pablo, Nate, Corbinion, Mitchell, Entropy UK, Arch 5530, Chris, Chuck, DJ, Donnie, Dylan, George, Lewis, Omri, Paul, Sean, Tobias, and Willie These guys, they're the producers of the show, they're my highest tiered patrons over on Patreon I also need to thank each and every one of these ladies and gentlemen, all these names you're seeing on the screen This is all my supporters over on Patreon because this channel is supported by you guys, the community If you'd like to support my work, you can find DistroTube over on Patreon Alright guys, peace