Thread · 5 tweets · 5 Apr 2019

I completely agree with @cwarzel: privacy isn’t about secrets, it’s about self-determination and the preservation of democratic exploration. As @WilliamsJames_ put it, "freedoms of the future are freedoms of the mind."

You should care about privacy not because you have something to hide, but because if I know more about you than you can remember — invisibly — then I can use that knowledge to influence, and later control, your behaviour.

Publishers (and all first-party services) should care about privacy not only for ethics but to sustain their independence. Those who fail to grasp the massive reconfiguration of business through the data market over the past two decades will end up sharecropping for adtech.

The stakes of the privacy debate are not about finger-wagging at some big companies: they're about human autonomy, freedom of the press, and defending democracy. Hey, no pressure.

You know me, I could write about this until Twitter runs out of thread; but I'll let you all have your Friday back. In case you couldn't tell, I'm really excited about this newsletter. Go sign up: nytimes.com/newsletters/pr…