Why Does Privacy Matter?
I mean… we’re called Privacy Academy for a reason, right?
Most people know that they are being spied on.
This is probably not shocking to you in the slightest.
You’ve gotten the tailored ads that are a little too spot on and the timely social media posts about your job, your hobby, or even something in your local community you were thinking of attending.
So, why does privacy matter? It’s not like you’re a criminal; what do you even have to hide?
Who cares if the government knows what your favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor is and what you watch on Netflix, right?
Well, privacy is not about your favorite ice cream flavor. The truth is, it is the base layer, the concrete foundation, for ALL of your human rights, and by the end of this article you will fully understand what I am saying.
It’s been over a decade since Edward Snowden revealed that the government was spying on him, and since then… NO ONE has been held accountable, and instead, Edward had to flee the country to avoid death for “treason.” Well, the surveillance has only gotten worse since then.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance…
And like I said, without privacy, we will lose all of our freedom, we will be enslaved by totalitarian rulers, and we will be judged on every action we take. Privacy is the most important piece to preserving our liberty. But instead of getting granular and talking about “encryption,” let’s start from the base up; that way you truly understand why privacy matters.
Let me start out by asking you, what is it that makes our lives so great?
It’s a hard question, but here’s the truth… we have been living in a free, prosperous society for so long that most of the small luxuries we have in life are taken for granted. We have inherited a society built by generations of hard work to ensure that we have all of our human rights protected. In fact, we are living in an ultra-convenient, safe society.
So when you think back to your fondest memories, you need to understand that the only reason you were able to have them is because of your individual freedoms that you have been blessed with in your life.
But what does that have to do with privacy? Well, privacy is a fundamental human right. But still most people don’t understand why privacy matters.
I often get told, “I’m not doing anything immoral, I’m not doing anything illegal, why should I care? It won’t affect me.”
Well, as I just said… we are living in the most free society known to man. We can’t quantify all forms of government in the same way as what we currently live in.
Privacy is the backbone to freedom of speech, freedom of personal finance, and even freedom of thought. When there is no privacy, you will be constantly judged for every action you take. Everything you do online will be monitored; your phone already tracks your location at all times, and you have microphones and cameras with you constantly. AI is smart enough to take all of this information and analyze it, and even worse… JUDGE you based off of it.
And when I say judge you on your every move, I don’t mean judging you by today’s standards. Remember, he who is in power defines the laws. Just imagine if Hitler, Stalin, or Mao had the level of technology that we have today. It would be devastating.
And I want to highlight this point with a quote that is supposedly attributed to Mario Puzo the author of The Godfather, but I can’t verify that.
If you hold a gun and I hold a gun, we can talk about the law.
If you hold a knife and I hold a knife, we can talk about rules.
If you come empty-handed and I come empty-handed, we can talk about reason.
But if you have a gun and I only have a knife, then the truth lies in your hands.
If you have a gun and I have nothing, what you hold isn’t just a weapon; it’s my life.
The concepts of laws, rules, and morality only hold meaning when they are based on equality.
The harsh truth of this world is that when money speaks, truth goes silent. And when power speaks, even money takes three steps back.
Those who create the rules are often the first to break them. Rules are chains for the weak, tools for the strong.
In this world, anything good must be fought for.
The masters of the game are fiercely competing for resources while only the weak sit idly, waiting to be given a share.
The point of this article isn’t about guns. It’s about who holds power. We cannot view life as black and white, “I am a good person, that person is a bad person.” The truth is, he who holds power is the one who defines “good” or “bad” in their society. Just think about Mao, Stalin, Hitler, or Pol Pot. They decided who was “good” and who was “bad” in their societies, and countless good people suffered because of it.
Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of privacy long before the internet or smart devices existed. The 4th Amendment https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-4/,highlights our fundamental right to privacy. They knew that privacy is essential for all freedom. It’s not just about closing your curtains at night. It is about protecting all of your other rights. Instead of defining privacy, let me start by defining totalitarianism.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines totalitarianism as a form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism
So, let me ask you, how can a government, subordinate all aspects of individual life? Well, they could only do that if they tracked and monitored every aspect of individual life. Or in other words, if they set up a surveillance state. For total control to exist, the government relies on data and surveillance.
This can be seen with the Nazis forming powerful gestapo, or in communism where people were forced to sell their family members out at risk of severe punishment or death. In Budapest, where I currently spend a lot of my time, rats, or informants, existed on all levels during communism. Some people were given the role of playing a trusted confident. Or in other words, your best friend may confide something in you, like that they do not believe in the politicians in power. Once you hear this information, you would have to report it to an authority; otherwise, your friend may have been put up to testing your loyalty. A failure to report would result in severe punishment. This was done to completely silence and ostracize any opposition. It also was done to let people know if they messed up, then they would be caught.
In the past, power seekers had to rely on social engineering, or in other words… they would force fear into their troops and also their citizens. In Hungary, this snitching system worked for many reasons. First off, you had no one you could trust. Not even your closest family members, because they would or could turn on you. Second, you would face a severe punishment if you were caught doing anything against the state. Third, they would force you to spy on people. I read a story once of a man that was forced to spy on his best friend’s family. He was extremely depressed because he was betraying people extremely close to him; this brought him close to suicide. One day, his officer came up to him and told him that if he killed himself, then his entire family would go to jail as punishment for his actions. Further prolonging the cycle.
This is how they would force people to do awful things to each other. But still, this is not as powerful as modern technology. People are tricky; no matter how scared they get, they will always be unpredictable. On top of that, they are not always watching, always listening, and constantly judging every move.
Now, with smart devices everywhere, we have a surveillance net that covers almost every area of our life. Our phones, computers, TVs, cars, and smart home devices are listening to everything you say. If we lived under a ruler, like Stalin, you can imagine how this would be used against you.
My father and I have been warning people about this surveillance state for the last decade. One of the biggest threats we have warned about is Digital IDs. These are being enforced all over the world, but one of the countries where they are being very forthright about their plans is Great Britain.
In September of 2025, Keir Starmer announced that Britain was going to enforce digital IDs, so much so that you cannot work in the UK without getting a digital ID.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cwydl81dg13t
NOTE: this has been slightly walked back to be non-compulsory due to mass public unrest. They will continue to try to pass this quietly.
I have made a full video on Digital IDs, I recommend checking that out if you haven’t seen it already. Basically, a Digital ID will be used as your profile for every aspect of life. Where you make money, how you make money, and how you spend it. Your political beliefs, your religious beliefs, whether you are a skeptic or not, and so on.
This is the backbone for a Social Credit System, similar to a Financial Credit System, but instead every aspect of your life is judged and punished or rewarded.
Anyways, the reason I bring up Digital IDs is because there was an image leaked from Tony Blair’s think tank regarding how Digital IDs app might look -
If you notice here, there is a section called “Report New Issues,”
They have some normal things like road damage, and street lighting, but then it goes into very scary territory. You can report fraud, fly-tipping (littering), vandalism, and noise complaints.
Sounds a lot like what they did in Hungary, right?
Well, like I said, this time it’s different. Because when the Soviets had control over Russia, they didn’t have any smart devices.
We are already seeing how the British government is greatly overstepping their role. Right now, there are a reported 30 arrests a day for posts on social media.
https://citizensforfreespeech.org/why-britain-arrests-30-people-every-day-for-speech/
This is a clear example of how free speech cannot exist without privacy. Why? Because if you know a dangerous truth, you need to be able to share the truth without fearing for your life. This is why there are so many whistleblower protection laws, and yet still we see how often whistleblowers “commit suicide”.
We can take it even further; if the level of technology existed during the Revolutionary War, the United States of America would have never come to fruition. Why? That’s because they would have been rounded up and shot by the British government, before they even started their rebellion.
But what about the other areas of life that are compromised without privacy?
To be honest, all of them. Like I mentioned in the beginning of this video. All of your fondest memories, exist because of the human rights that have been protected. But without these human rights, EVERY aspect of your life will be changed.
Let me paint you a picture…
Imagine a society, like in the book 1984, where everything is tracked; you have cameras, microphones, and GPS everywhere you go. All of your finances are stored digitally, each transaction is tracked, and people share all of their personal information to social media and are rewarded for it. All interactions happen digitally and not physically. All of this information is stored in a centralized database that is tracking and analyzing you.
Censorship is not book burning anymore; rather you can be simply shadowbanned and silenced through technology.
In this world, the First Amendment is destroyed https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/ – No right to assembly or free speech. If you speak out, you will be INSTANTLY punished however the government sees fit.
With no free speech, people will be forced to only consume “state-approved” information… in other words, meaning that they will control freedom of thought. Because without knowledge, you cannot make informed decisions. This further tightens their control on your world, much harder than any physical chains.
And with everything tracked, you will be constantly analyzed and judged for every action you take.
This is exactly how the Chinese Social Credit System works. I have gone into great detail about the Chinese Social Credit System in other articles/videos, so if you are interested in learning more about it, I recommend checking out my detailed video on Social Credit Systems and how they are coming to the West.
And you might be wondering, how is this happening? I just mentioned our constitution, but yet they are still carelessly trampling it. Well, that’s happening for two reasons.
First off, the politicians don’t care. They are doing this all right in front of our faces. This is a very concerning threat. I like to think of political corruption like a scale. In a free society, corruption is looked down upon and almost hard to imagine because people have so much faith in their system. Then, as scales start to tip, it becomes more and more obvious. Conspiracy theories start to form, and then they get proven correct. This happens over and over, and the government becomes more bold in their steps towards tyranny, no longer hiding as much. It’s just like the Epstein files; the government is happy to dangle corruption in front of your eyes, just to show you that they will never be held accountable. This makes you feel more hopeless against them. Then, it reaches its peak, like when you saw Saddam Hussein publicly execute his rivals, while everyone else cheered out of fear.
So, yes. Obviously that is a big concern, but there is another reason why this is happening. It’s happening through public-private partnerships. Or in other words, the government pumps its money into big tech companies, and they in return do the spying for them.
With the passing of the Patriot Act and FISA bills, surveillance is at an all-time high. AI was designed specifically for the surveillance industry.
What, you thought people were pumping trillions of dollars into this technology just to make videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti?
Come on, we all know what drives the markets: sex, and war. And the government funds surveillance technology as if it is war technology…. Why? Because it is warfare.
The real reason AI was created was to record, process, analyze, and judge every piece of data it collects. They will tie it into the Digital ID system that I talked about earlier in this video.
What can this lead to?
Well, in China, in 2018, 23 MILLION train and plane tickets were rejected because of “too low social credit scores.”
Oh, but it can go further than that; you can lose access to travel altogether. Meaning, no more driving in your smart car or taxi.
If we take it even further, they can geofence you from parts of town. Just look at this clip of people scanning their face to access public toilets in China:
But these IRIS scans go much further; nowadays people almost ONLY pay in China with their face.
That means, your money is directly tied into your identity. With all assets being held digitally, your money can be deleted with the click of a button. You can be rejected from buying certain products, and pricing can change dependent on your score.
This happened in Vietnam when they deleted 86 MILLION bank accounts of people who refused Digital ID and biometric verification.
As you can imagine, this can dramatically punish people. It doesn’t matter if you are a billionaire; if you speak out, you can become a homeless person starving in the streets -
This is a great example of how different life is without human rights, this is a great example of why privacy is essential to freedom, and I hope it is a slap across the face telling you to take this seriously.
Because, clearly, the framework is being built and finalized RIGHT now in the west.
So, what can you do?
Well, at the start of this video, I said by the end, you would want to throw away all of your “smart” devices. I am sure for some of you, that is true.
But am I suggesting that we all become Amish and return to non-tech solutions? Well, not exactly.
Man created fire, and had the potential to burn down the whole world. Instead, we built the tech tree around using it for our benefit.
The same can be done for modern technology; the key is building and using it with purpose. You can still use Digital Solutions that respect and protect your privacy instead of Big Tech spyware. For example, I de-googled my own phone, and I installed Linux onto my computers. Now, that is advanced, and I don’t recommend starting there, but the truth is, you can still use privacy-respecting technology.
The key is to use open-sourced, encrypted, and trusted software. Just because something is marketed as “private” doesn’t mean it is. But getting private doesn’t have to be hard, and on top of protecting yourself from hackers and scammers it is by far the most important thing you can do to protect a legacy of liberty.
That’s exactly why we created Privacy Academy.
If you want to get private and secure, or in other words… if you want to preserve your human rights and ensure a legacy of liberty…
I recommend you sign up for our program at PrivacyAcademy.com. It is designed for average, non-techy people.
Thank you!
Eric
P.S.
More resources
https://newsvoice.se/2025/10/yuval-noah-harari-your-social-credit/
https://slaynews.com/news/biden-rushing-executive-order-force-digital-id-americans/
Thanks for sharing all this info., much of which was new to me. Was totally unaware of the growing homelessness in China, but it does make sense in light of their Social Credit System, which the West would love to impose on all of us ASAP. Maybe sometime this year The Privacy Academy can resurrect the process of installing Linux on our computers, or better yet, showing some of the computers available for sale, with Linux already installed. I took copious notes last time you aired it, but "They" are tighhtening the screws more than ever, so maybe it's time for a replay.
Thanks again guys.
I hope this breaks through that mind-numbing resistance of "I have nothing to hide, so why should I care" attitude we often hear in dismissal. Thank you for this article, with indisputable references, all driving the importance of this technocratic takeover home.