Privacy

Everyday we post more and more information about ourselves online

But this comes at a price
Privacy
Our governments are passing more and more laws that allow them to view stuff
Emails, phone calls, and web history
These are some of the many that they can view

Let's say you live in a country generally considered to be a dictatorship

You get invited to a protest against privacy laws
The protest is huge
You go there, just because
Now the government considers you a suspect
A dangerous person
Instead of throwing you in jail
They can now threaten you
Now things start to worsen
They threaten to get your parents fired and throw them in jail
Unless you help them catch your friends who protested with you so they can throw them in prison
So you do
One by one
Friend by friend
You turn in your friends to protect your parents

Eventually you stop reporting in your friends

You cannot stand betraying them any longer
You stay at home and try to make amends
Refusing to do anything anyone tells you to do
You hear knocking on the door
You don’t know what to do
Police come in
They arrest you and your parents
They confiscate everything
Even your ferrets
Everyone who wasn’t arrested says nothing
If they do, they’re next

Prison was horrible

It lasted for eternity
You’re not really sure what happened during your time there
Doctors are afraid to treat you, and when around you they act nervously
They do not want to be affiliated with you
Eventually you are released from prison
It feels as if you were just in a zoo
You go home
But no one is there
Your neighbour informs you that your family disappeared weeks ago
The news indicates nothing out of the ordinary, though
Your neighbour tells you that there hasn’t been any real journalists for months
Everyone is scared
No one talks to you, even you best friend Bob
They don’t know who's reporting for the government
They just want to keep their job
And live a normal life
Good people do bad things for simple reasons
You want your family back
You want to speak out against the government
You should have never went to that protest
You can’t use a phone or computer
You want to get a job
You need to visit the doctor
And you want to trust someone

Little by little things get worse

That is how revolutions happen
These privacy laws allow them to accomplish all that I just mentioned
They say it’s for our safety
Look at Soviet Russia and East Germany
This could happen soon
Or fifty years from now
We just don’t know when
Right now we have a choice
Do we want to let this happen?
In the story I told you
Does anyone really sound safe?