If someone knows something about you, he gains power over you.
This is the most fundamental reason I have seen yet, reflected (often unconsciously) in our daily lives: We have curtains, we talk in private, we have secrets we only tell to those we trust, have company confidentials, discretion, spokesmen, and don't negotiate our salaries in public.
Why? Because we instinctively try to minimize those who might take advantage over us.
Knowledge can be exploited in so many ways that it is very hard to tell if a certain piece of information is harmless or not. If you're at the mercy of someone else, depending on him not to exploit his knowledge over you, you lose freedom.
Most people at least feel this and therefore - in their social interactions - act accordingly.
Interestingly, as soon at no human face is involved, my observation is that these instincts break down. I believe that's the core issue today, where most information isn't collected by some creepy stalker, but by web services, governments and card readers. They seem so detached from a real (potentially threatening) person, that our deeply engrained secrecy patterns fail us.
This is an excellent point, but there is yet another subtler and more benign point of view.
Private information is valuable social currency which we use to measure and define the distance between ourselves and others. There are things that are only told to the significant other for instance. By knowing them she/he not only has more power on me but also rightly feels closer to me than anyone else.
When someone finds out such information about me - harmless or not - without my consent he/she positions him/herself too close to me and I feel justly violated. The same way someone may try to diminsh the distance by disclosing facts that are not told to a stranger, expecting me to reciprocate. But at least then I have the option to decline.
I think this is the core issue: wanting privacy is basically wanting to retain control of how close I let other people come, and controlling the amount of facts they know about me is the tool to define that distance. Stealing this valuable social currency does not differ that much from stealing any other type of currency.
> If someone knows something about you, he gains power over you.
I couldn't agree more. When I graduated from high school, coming from a small town, I wanted to get a college degree. Unfortunately, I had a low self-esteem and many friends and relatives that would belittle me or my goal. I don't know if they were jealous or I was such an underachiever in high school that it was hard for them to believe I could reach my goal. This really undermined my confidence and my ability to study, leading me to drop out more than once. Finally, I stopped hanging around that town, did not tell anyone about my plans except a few people, and cut off the relationships that put me down the most. Then I went back to college and it was a breeze. I'm not totally cynical, but I believe there are a lot of people out there that will use personal information to hurt you, and it's best to minimize what you tell others until you know who you can trust.
Surface conformity is one of the best skills you can cultivate. People like few things more than believing, "this person is just like me in all the important ways."the larger the group is, the more important it becomes.
This is the most fundamental reason I have seen yet, reflected (often unconsciously) in our daily lives: We have curtains, we talk in private, we have secrets we only tell to those we trust, have company confidentials, discretion, spokesmen, and don't negotiate our salaries in public.
Why? Because we instinctively try to minimize those who might take advantage over us.
Knowledge can be exploited in so many ways that it is very hard to tell if a certain piece of information is harmless or not. If you're at the mercy of someone else, depending on him not to exploit his knowledge over you, you lose freedom.
Most people at least feel this and therefore - in their social interactions - act accordingly. Interestingly, as soon at no human face is involved, my observation is that these instincts break down. I believe that's the core issue today, where most information isn't collected by some creepy stalker, but by web services, governments and card readers. They seem so detached from a real (potentially threatening) person, that our deeply engrained secrecy patterns fail us.