Nothing to hide. Really?

More than four years after Edward Snowden's revelations in the NSA listening post, the journalists, Marc Meillassoux and Mihaela Gladovic, plunges into the mysteries of the surveillance of mass generalized in an entitled documentary accessible "Nothing to hide" recently on the platforms of accommodation of videos. Fascinating.

"I do not care to be traced or watched. Anyway, I have nothing to hide". Such is the typical argument lifted by a certain one doxa when the subject of the surveillance of mass is approached. It is the case of Max Thommes, a Berlin artist who accepted that an informer is installed in his smartphone and personal computer during several weeks. It is this experience which tells the documentary "Nothing to hide", interrupted with specialists interventions of the question if they are militant, university, jurists or ex-agents of the piece of information.

Speech of the voluntary servitude

Forget the forbidden fruit. The massive captation of the data for advertising is the original sin of our time. Except that here the "drop" is more insidious. Painless. Invisible. She is even rather pleasant following the example of the soma, the "artificial paradise" used by the protagonists of Aldous Huxley's novel "The best of the worlds" quoted in the documentary. It is just enough to click. In fact, it is free! Are they general terms of use? Simply brushed aside (forgiveness, a "swipe" of the finger). What is this incongruity which comes to delay our access to the latest fashionable application?

Such is our common attitude in front of digital services. Be alone, we are ready to deliver all our intimacy on Web. With our good right, we think that all what we shall say will not be against us: it is the other point used to take care of privacy invasions. " Why should we worry about it, anyway, I did nothing wrong"?

The antisocial contract

Nevertheless, the impact on personal freedoms is profound. In reality, everybody has something to hide. To Quadrature former spoken-man of the clear Jérémie Zimmerman, the intimacy allows the personal fulfillment. It is because we all are safe from those what we can experiment even if it makes errors. According to Alison Macrina who works as the anonymous browser Thor, a life can last overnight because of a change in the situation. Contents published in the past can then take another form with the new situation. We often see it when unknown persons reach suddenly the celebrity and see blaming for words broadcasted previously in the social networks. Edward Snowden goes farther: the speech of "nothing to hide " is the dominant class. It is made to the detriment of the minorities the condition  which is more fragile for a definition. It is an antisocial speech, as if you said that you had to make nothing with the freedom of expression because you do not use it. Now, others may be interested in it.

Watch and profile

With the democracy in the totalitarian regime, there would be a step susceptible to be too short. According to a questioned analyst, instruments have already been there. The political will has not remained any more. The documentary dares the parallel with Stasi, political police of ex-East Germany. Excessive? If at that time the objective of these agents was of " all knowledge ", the former branch manager of National Security American, Keith Alexander, was able to declare that his purpose was "to collect everything". It is not easy to seize the nuance.

The weighing machine could be made for the sake of the security. It is under this motive which have passed the laws granting important powers to the intelligence companies in term of data collections. "Nothing to hide " joins "nothing to be afraid of". As a result: an inflation of information is handled those who acts paradoxically as a brake in the fight against terrorism. Besides, the provision of new data allows "to profile" social movement, Occupy Wall street in ecologists' demonstrations during the COP 21.

"Nothing to hide" ends in a note of hope. Formerly artless, Max Thommes contemplates with dismay the set of the data which were able to be collected during the weeks in the course he was watched. An analyst describes exactly what the  lifestyle was, the places what happened, activities to which it devoted, the social relationships and lifestyle, all the meta faith given (which serve to describe other "data", for example, GPS address and phone number). "My opinion on the subject has considerably been changed", declares a little bit sheepish Thommes. "Hear somebody talk about you like that, who you have never met, it was a strange sensation".

Then, is there always nothing to hide?

Article written by Thierry Randretsa