With Verizon vans rolling down the road being called “NSA Surveillance Vehicles” and every tech and political blog on the internet complaining about the US government’s collection of personal data from the citizens, innocent or not, it is impossible to visit a social media site without hearing something about the controversy. The people are mad and they’re letting others know about it.
There’s a problem with many of the complaints, however. It doesn’t apply to everyone, but for those who are so completely open about their lives on social media, it definitely smells a little hypocritical. That’s the perspective of The Joy of Tech, the funny and often controversial comic by Geek Culture. Here’s their take on the situation. Unfortunately, it’s pretty spot on in many circumstances.
False equivalency. For better or for worse, whether wise or not, the woman in the comic is choosing to share all those things. She didn’t choose for Verizon to hand over her phone records to the NSA. One’s invasion of privacy. One isn’t.
There is a difference between consentually giving up privacy and having it removed nonconsentually.