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Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively

Its is not about hiding 

The fact that we can choose to show ourselves selectively, for whatever reason it is, is why privacy matters, now more than ever on a rich online-data world like we live in. We should always be able to choose how we share our information, agreeing in the conditions according to the extent of our ability to remain free of whatever type of coercion, persecution or something that puts our safety in jeopardy. Privacy on the internet generates a great debate these days with the state of law trying to catch up with technological advancements and how society evolves around them. The story of how London-based Cambridge Analytica could have accessed peoples’ Facebook data and potentially used it to influence the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. has come to revolt opinions, and even more the oversight of governments and laws in this context.

Everyone's information is on the internet these days, many aspects of our identity are shown through many platforms and Facebook is a humongous part of that. Without counting other sites or apps that uses your Facebook login info, we share tons of data about what we like, what we read, what we write, to whom, when and where, and all that was supposed to be in our judgment to whom we select to share that info or not. Reality says not tho, Facebook used all that data and according to their business model was able for a company like Cambridge Analytica to dissect our political identity and manipulate masses with clever social engineering tools. Bravo, that was malevolently smart, but then, there is no such a thing like anonymity in modern democracy then. Alarm!

Political Identity should be anonymous unless you choose not to

Someone harvesting your political information is much more dangerous than you bank account password, you can cancel a credit card but you can't cancel a president. A malicious user having access to a map with accurate political data from everywhere in the world is far more concerning due to the power to manipulate masses and diminishment of democracy. A principal aspect of almost any Constitution on the planet is the right to have a secret ballot in modern democratic systems. 

The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum is anonymous, forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying.  

Democracy is based in the judgment of the people of a nation to trust the leadership of its whole, but even partisans of democracy through history have expressed misgivings about the people’s capacity to exercise judgment. The power of the Leviathan modern Estate might be used for selfish purposes of someone or a collective, that's why the democratic system balances it assuring the power that resides in its people WITH instruments to protect their freedom overall, to provide a sense of fairness in conditions and safety for the nation. But what happens when we live in society with an online presence that makes impossible that there is a thing such  as a anonymity in the democratic system? Things can go sow rong. Simply speaking,public voting leaves voters more vulnerable to:

• Retribution - vote this way or we'll hurt you (injure you, fire you, demote you)
• Bribery - vote this way and we'll pay you. We can see how you vote.
• Discrimination - sorry, we only hire people with the right political views.
• Peer Pressure, Groupthink, Loss of Privacy - how dare you vote that way? what were you thinking? You're not one of us like we thought

None of the above lead to free and fair elections and are therefore bad for democracy. So how can we take the fact that an Analytics company just hacked that from our everyday life and successfully used it to shape what currently is the leadership one of the most military powerful countries in the world. This is the part when we all remember who can start a nuclear war with a tweet. 

Now Blockchain comes in handy in the middle of this discussion about transparency, and this might be and opportunity to shine and lead a new kind of usage of these platforms. Technology has something to play in between the evolution of the super network. The internet is at a stage where we all need to shift our understanding of the consequences of a digital life, the reach of technology can not be oversee anymore, so we all as a modern society claim our rights exercising responsibility in our behavior. The common agreement between companies and users might need a judgmental shift from the users, the community should shape the platforms, as long as we still in power of our identity and persona. 

What do you think about privacy on the internet? Thoughts on Facebook? Elections in the US? Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

Thank you for reading.