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Do Law Abiding people have nothing to fear?

A common argument in the debate on ID cards and similar infringements on privacy such as surveillance cameras is that "A law abiding person has nothing to fear" or "Why should I worry, I have nothing to hide."

However given a little thought it becomes clear that there are many scenarios where law abiding citizens do have something to fear about private information about them becoming more widely accessible. Also most people have information that they would prefer to keep private from other individuals.

People may hide information from their friends or family for the following reasons.

• A person who is homosexual but their family does not know.
• An adulterer.
• A person having a relationship with someone of a different race or religion, whose family would forbid it.
• A woman seeking help to get away from her violent partner.
• A son or daughter visiting an estranged parent without the knowledge of the parent they live with.
• Someone attending classes of religious instruction prior to converting to another religion that fears the vengeance of their family if their apostasy becomes known.
• Someone going to church, synagogue or mosque who fears the scorn of his or her secular friends, colleagues or family.

People may hide information from their employer for the following reasons.

• A person who has unpopular political beliefs of left or right that might lose them their job or promotion.
• Someone that is attending interviews for a new job but doesn't wish to jeopardize their present employment if they fail to get the other job.
• Someone who is trying to move on from their past such as an ex-criminal seeking to go straight or someone who is going to Alcoholics Anonymous.

There are also cases of mostly law-abiding people who participate in illegal activities that they would prefer to keep private such as people that smoke cannabis for whatever reason.


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Next: Civil liberties arguments Up: Contents Previous: Public Opinion

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