Tech Isn’t Vulnerable — You Are

Any conversation about privacy has to acknowledge that we are alone and powerless

Launching the New York Times new privacy newsletter this spring, the tech journalist Charlie Warzel described the word “privacy” as “an impoverished term.” The problem with privacy, he explained, is that it is a concept “so all-encompassing that it is impossible to adequately describe” — a so-called hyperobject like climate change or social class. It’s only momentarily, when specific aspects of privacy come to light, that we get a glimpse of the whole that the word could describe.

Nevertheless, Warzel made an attempt to reframe privacy or define it in a more accessible way. Since we are ultimately unable to control how all the data we create are used, distributed, tabulated, or just plain stolen, we are in the process of losing control of our lives. “When technology governs so many aspects of our lives — and when that technology is powered by the exploitation of our data — privacy isn’t just about knowing your secrets, it’s about autonomy,” Warzel wrote.

We are aware, however vaguely, that the data trail we create online is used in ways we can’t fully imagine.