Faced with mass surveillance, the response "I have nothing to hide" is the most common — and the most dangerous. As Edward Snowden wrote: "Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like arguing that you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say". Privacy is not about hiding crimes: it is the prerequisite for freedom of thought, association and expression.
Resistance to surveillance operates on three levels: technical, legal and social. On the technical level, there are powerful and accessible tools. End-to-end encryption (Signal, ProtonMail) protects communications from interception. VPNs hide internet traffic from providers and governments. Tor enables anonymous browsing. Privacy-first browsers (Brave, Firefox with extensions) block tracking. These tools are not perfect, but they significantly raise the barrier for those who want to surveil us.
On the legal level, the European GDPR has established important principles: the right to access one's data, the right to deletion, the right not to be subject to purely automated decisions. The organisation noyb (None Of Your Business), founded by Max Schrems, has won landmark cases against Facebook and Google. In Italy, the Privacy Authority blocked the use of Clearview AI. These legal precedents are important victories, even if enforcement often remains slow and incomplete.
But the most powerful resistance is social. Movements to ban facial recognition — such as Amnesty International's "Ban the Scan" campaign — have achieved concrete results in several cities. Communities mapping surveillance cameras in their neighbourhoods are practising "sousveillance" — surveillance from below, where citizens watch those who watch them. Researchers publishing studies on errors and biases of surveillance systems are providing the evidence needed for legislative change.
A fundamental concept is "privacy as collective infrastructure". My privacy does not depend only on my choices: it also depends on the apps my friends use, the data my employer shares, my government's policies. This is why privacy cannot be only an individual responsibility — it requires collective action and strong regulation.
The good news is that awareness is growing. From outrage over Cambridge Analytica to protests against facial recognition, a global movement for digital privacy is forming. We are not powerless: we have technical tools, legal precedents and collective strength. What is needed is the will to use them.