If you suffix that sentence with "...so the IRS will have trouble taking me to court for money-laundering", the lawyer wouldn't even have to "pervert" it. Privacy is not suspicious. Privacy with the explicit, stated intent of concealing illegal behavior is perfectly reasonably suspicious. Similarly - I would not bat an eye at the average car purchase, but I would think hard if someone asked me to recommend a car that would not be damaged if it hit someone. I would not give a friend access to my computer if they said they were going to use it to send spam email. Etc.
This isn't about the privacy tech. This is about Uber being evil, knowing that they are doing evil, and trying to hide their evil from the courts. The fact that they worked at a high level to hide their evil destroys any pretense that it was accidental or unintentional.
> If you suffix that sentence with "...so the IRS will have trouble taking me to court for money-laundering", the lawyer wouldn't even have to "pervert" it. Privacy is not suspicious. Privacy with the explicit, stated intent of concealing illegal behavior is perfectly reasonably suspicious.
[meme][1] Can't lose privacy [/1][2] If you don't tell people what you're doing in private [/2][/meme]
But seriously, it's a bit of a catch-22; engaging in privacy preserving behaviour but later falling under suspicion of some illegal act shouldn't imply that you engaged in those behaviours for the intent of covering up suspected but not proven illegal acts. It's a real issue -- but it someone were so stupid as to say "haha, I did x so you couldn't prove it!" ... well, that's basically an admission of guilt, isn't it.
I think that that's an issue regardless of the action you're taking. I buy nice kitchen knives on Amazon because I cook. Lots of people buy nice kitchen knives on Amazon because they cook. But if I stab someone with a nice kitchen knife the day after it arrives in the mail, I bet that that purchase is going to get a reaaaaaaally careful look when the "premeditated" bit comes up in court.
(There's another issue here about normal everyday things being painted as unusual and bad. I think that that's what drove the post that I originally responded to, and I can't fault the overreaction - too many people have in seriousness said things like "if you have nothing to hide". For the listed reasons, however, I don't think that that's what's going on here, and I'd prefer to avoid giving the anti-privacy group ammunition in the form of weak arguments.)
“Evil”... I think the word you’re looking for is illegal (maybe not even that). There is not an objective moral code. I (and many others) view Uber challenging unethical laws as morally beneficial. I admit that’s my own personal opinion though and that there is no global concept of good/evil. Really odd to see this very conservative thinking creeping into the tech industry that in the past was very much against the establishment.
