Thread by @DellAnnaLuca

I was told that privacy wasn’t important because I didn’t have anything to hide.

(An argument absurd for a ton of reasons, clearly; but let’s examine this one in particular. Thread.)

https://twitter.com/thebias_news/status/1340134618402414592

2/ The paper argues that using web history & similar inputs could unlock access to lending services.

For example, someone who scores just not enough on traditional screening methods used by banks could be included thanks to a virtuous search history.

3/ The above is true. However, it also means that people who would be "in" thanks to traditional screening methods could be excluded thanks to a less-virtuous search history.

More importantly, who decides what's a virtuous search history?

4/ At a first glance, there are queries that are bad.

For example, "how do I get a loan to gamble?"

On the other hand, even that search query could be the result of, saying, someone playing a videogame using no real-world money.

5/ More importantly, the political ideology in government could decide that some arbitrary searches should affect your credit score or whether you can get a loan

Who knows, tomorrow someone could decide that googling "why is there a strike tomorrow" could hurt your credit score

6/ The point is,

privacy is important not for how data is used today but for how it could be used tomorrow,

and not for who could use it today but for who could use it tomorrow.

7/ Also, and this is a separate point, the idiots who came up with that idea probably never heard of Goodhart's law (what gets measured gets gamed).