Privacy has been defined in many ways. The right to tell your story your own way. The right to have control over your personal information. The right to be left alone. There’s a reason we have T-shirts that say “dance like no one is watching”. We censor ourselves when we’re being watched. But if knowledge is power, then asymmetries in knowledge must lead to asymmetries in power. Privacy is a human right but it’s also a collective good – something we need to respect and support, even if we do not personally feel the need to exercise it. Today I’ll explore why privacy is essential, how it is being threatened, and what we can do to reclaim it with Carissa Véliz, a professor of philosophy and author of the wonderful and important book, Privacy is Power.

Interview Notes

• Carissa’s website: https://www.carissaveliz.com/


• Privacy is Power: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673341/privacy-is-power-by-carissa-veliz/ 


• My review of her book: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/privacy-is-power-review/ 


• The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance: https://www.oxford-aiethics.ox.ac.uk/blog/new-book-ethics-privacy-and-surveillance 


• TEDx: The Case for Ending Data Economy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luCXlPYrTP4 


• Google’s Don’t Be Evil motto history:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don’t_be_evil 


• Give Thanks & Donate! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-thanks-donate/ 

Further Info

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Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:00:31 : Give Thanks & Donate!


• 0:01:27 : Follow me on Bluesky


• 0:02:06 : Interview setup


• 0:04:17 : What inspired you to write this book?


• 0:07:04 : What impacts has your book had? Did any response surprise you?


• 0:10:01 : When researching the book, what surveillance methods most surprised you?


• 0:13:31 : How and when did all this surveillance start?


• 0:15:40 : Are behavior ads really more effective than contextual ads?


• 0:19:04 : Is it possible to have privacy and still target ads?


• 0:22:08 : What’s your take on Google’s Privacy Sandbox concept?


• 0:23:57 : Why is the ‘notice and consent’ model such a failure?


• 0:28:14 : What’s your take on the notion of data sovereignty?


• 0:30:09 : Why is privacy a collective good that we all need to protect?


• 0:32:12 : How does asymmetry in knowledge lead to asymmetry in power?


• 0:34:06 : Are we at risk of normalizing surveillance for future generations?


• 0:37:09 : What will it take to trigger a surveillance backlash?


• 0:40:21 : What can we learn from history about overzealous data collection?


• 0:43:35 : How will AI technology impact our privacy?


• 0:49:30 : Can we reap the benefits of our data without giving up privacy?


• 0:52:45 : How do we manifest a society that values and respects privacy?


• 0:56:15 : Interview wrap-up


• 0:58:36 : Still celebrating 400th episode!


• 0:59:02 : Looking ahead