Privacy

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire

"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson

Glenn Greenwald does a great job of explaining why privacy is so important to us all.

The Edward Snowden revelations made us all question our views and beliefs on privacy. When Edward Snowden first came out the majority of Americans believed him to be more of a traitor than a patriot. As more details came to light a majority of Americans now view him instead as a Patriot. Edward Snowden, who is only 5 months older than myself, was incredibly brave to do what he did knowing full well what the consequences would be not only for himself but for his family and friends. 

Now companies and individuals are fighting back with Apple and Google now offering encryption built into their devices. As Edward Snowden says "encryption works" and the NSA and GCHQ have become worried as they know full well they can't break modern cryptography (the only weaknesses are usually found for example with the random number generators or some other side issue, not the algorithms themselves which would take thousands of years to break even with supercomputers). In reality we all want privacy for some reason or another. Medical conditions we may have. Personal communications we make with our loved ones. Little secrets that make us who we are. If we didn't then why would we password protect our emails accounts, as Glenn states in the video.

We should all take privacy seriously. Women in Afghanistan who are trying break free of their repressive male dominated cultures by utilising encryption. Political dissidents from totalitarian regimes. People who question our own Governments actions and have the privacy to do so. Everyone has a right to their own opinions even if it goes against conventional thinking. Such thoughts drive humans forward, it opens all our minds to new and better ideas. We should always defend privacy, if not for the sake of our own interests then for others who do need it and one day we will all be grateful for such peoples actions.