Privacy is endemically bad thing

My thanks to Jamie for proposing such an interesting topic. Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in many other international and regional treaties. Privacy underpins human dignity and other key values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most important human rights issues of the modern age.[1] My opponent claims that there is no reason to have Privacy; I will refute that claim with the following points, please note that these are also my arguments: 1) Privacy protects our dignity. 2) Privacy protects our personal selves. 3) Privacy protects us territorially. Firstly, I have noted how my opponent defined the word 'privacy,' but didn't actually show what it implied in his definition. I state the different aspects of privacy that we will be dealing with here: Information Privacy, which involves the establishment of rules governing the collection and handling of personal data such as credit information and medical records; Bodily privacy, which concerns the protection of people's physical selves against invasive procedures such as drug testing and cavity searches; Privacy of communications, which covers the security and privacy of mail, telephones, email and other forms of communication; and Territorial privacy, which concerns the setting of limits on intrusion into the domestic and other environments such as the workplace or public space. my first argument is that privacy is good because it protects our dignity. Consider the affirmative teams case. Why hide if you have nothing to hide? This is a common quote used throughout the privacy debate and I would like to point out that it is flawed in the sense that it doesn't accurately reflect the issue being debated. In terms of human dignity, you may as well add a bit on the end to make it consistent with the Affirmative's claim: You have nothing to hide in a personal relationship with someone else. You have nothing to hide when using the toilets or showers. You have nothing to hide at all in your own home. When all is said and done, we all know that there are some secrets which we would prefer that the rest of the world didn't know about, and quite obviously, places and times that we want private too. The Affirmative does not share these beliefs, and if that is the case, then I say he is very inconsiderate towards other people. My second point is that Privacy protects our person. Imagine this scenario; you are standing in a bus stop waiting for a bus and suddenly someone comes up to you and starts rummaging through your pockets. That is an invasion of privacy. Nobody wants that to happen to them. That's why its illegal. Privacy also protects our person when it comes to finance. Is it really everyones right to know your credit card details or your PIN number? Privacy protects other sensitive information too, names, birth dates, contacts and addresses. These sorts of information are supposed to be private from everyone else due to safety. A simple fact. My last point is that Privacy protects us territorially. Trespassing is a form of privacy infringement. One cannot simply walk into someone Else's house. In conclusion, Privacy is a fundamentally good thing for humans, it protects our dignity, person, and information. The claim that it is an endemically bad thing is unconscionable. [1]http://gilc.org...