Privacy is not about whether or not you have something to hide. Privacy is about having the personal liberty to choose, or not choose, who you share what information with. It is about feeling comfortable to open up with someone who previously did not know you well versus being forced open, pried apart like a bivalve.

Privacy is important not because I have something to hide but because I want to feel comfortable with whom and what I share. It is about not saying something, or not having something known, simply if I don't want it to be known. It is about personal freedom more than anything else I think.

I care about privacy when I want to surprise someone in a good way, like a surprise birthday party or present for instance. Too often privacy is associated only with secrecy and secrecy only with "something to hide." If someone knows personal information about me, even if I don't consider it 'bad,' they can choose to judge me for it anyway. They can use information against me even if it's not something that I did wrong.

Sometimes sharing certain bits of information about oneself is intimate. There is an intimacy in secrets; it's like nudity. I'm not personally a fan of public nudity and when asked why I usually retort along the lines of "I work hard to have the body I do. I expect other people to work hard to see it." If everyone knows everything about each other it devalues personal information and I think can devalue relationships (friendships, romantic relationships, whatever).

I mean, you wouldn't let me look at your bank statements or tell me your income, would you? But that's not "something to hide." It's not like there is a crime on your bank statements (well, I assume). It is just something you would prefer not everyone else see.

As for our gov't, it's gone too far. But I'm afraid it's entrenched and there's not much we can do about it.