The Importance of Glenn Greenwald's Why Privacy Matters Speech

Name
Professor
Course
14 December 2018
Glenn Greenwald: Why Privacy Matters
1.
Glenn Greenwald is an American lawyer, journalist, and author. He previously worked for the Guardian US and was among the first journalists to publish a large volume of NSA spying documents entrusted to him by Edward Snowden. It was the work of Glenn Greenwald and others that made the general public aware of the large-scale surveillance by NSA and its partner agencies across the globe and their intrusion on just everyone’s privacy and freedom. Despite facing personal repercussions for his professional work, Glenn continues his public speeches on about the mass surveillance (Keller, 1).
In the speech Why Privacy Matters, Greenwald presents an elegant and persuasive argument on the importance of privacy to human freedom and the destructive nature of the notion ‘if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.’ The following are the main points in Glenn’s argument. He starts by noting that the horror people experience when they find out that someone is watching them as they engage in private activity encourages the sense of “This is something I’m willing to do only if no one else is watching” (Glenn, 00:49). He further explains the idea by illustrating the dangers of mass surveillance on the freedom of expression, specifically on the comments by Google CEO, “If you're doing something that you don't want other people to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place” (Glenn, 03:08). He argues that those who claim to have nothing to hide, their actions tend to differ. The feeling of being watched restricts people from behaving to their true nature and refers to George Orwell and French philosopher Michel to expound on this point (Michael, Andrews & Williams, 135). He says that the psychological aspect of being watched is of benefit to oppresses, a fact exploited even before the availability of mass surveillance. He provides several examples to show that surveillance promotes tyranny. He argued that the rulers don’t share the common understanding of bad things. He concluded by emphasizing on his argument: mass surveillance reduces people’s freedom.
Why Privacy Matters is a speech Greenwald gave on Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) talks at the 2014 TEDGlobal in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. TED talks are short talks aimed at spreading ideas that are worthwhile (TED, 2018). The typical setting is a conference where a presenter talks about a particular issue or concept in a short but informative way. There is a time limit usually around 15 minutes with a few extra minutes for questions and observations by the moderator. The entire clip is 20 minutes long, 15 minutes on Greenwald’s speech and 5 minutes engaging in an interactive session with the moderator.
2.
Greenwald is an eloquent and effective speaker and presents his argument in a way that his audience agrees with the points he makes. He starts his speech by giving an example of how people feel when their privacy is invaded, something that everyone experiences or relates, which invites the audience to look at privacy from his perspective. Greenwald mentioned on researching on the topic for the previous 16 months, and that the speech was in the context of global debate following the revelations of Edward Snowden (Glenn, 01:00). When he presents a point, he supports it with evidence and examples. His particular choice of examples is intriguing, select quotes the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt (Glenn, 03:08) and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (Glenn, 04:21), both their sites are prominent sources surveillance data. He demonstrates how their actions ensure their privacy, contradicting their claims of having nothing to hide. As a journalist and a lawyer, he has an excellent command of English and a precise choice of words. For example, when commenting on the motives of Snowden, he tells the moderator, “I consider that absurd and idiotic” (Glenn, 19:21).
Through his speech, Greenwald comes out as a credible source. His argument is unbiased, and he presents it from an utterly factual perspective (Michael, Andrews & Williams, 293). From the beginning of the speech, he supports his points with appropriate evidence and examples in a persuasive manner that keeps the audience attentive. He is well conversant with the topic of privacy and mass surveillance which is demonstrated by the points he makes, the examples he gives and the references he provides. Using publicly available information on both Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg provides credibility for his points. The references he makes to George Orwell and French philosopher Michel proves his broad knowledge on surveillance and tyranny.
In the speech, Greenwald genuinely appeals to those who claim that they have nothing to hide, to do so also by their actions. On his part, he says to everyone who claims to have nothing to hide “Here’s my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email and social media accounts, because I want to be able to troll through what it is that you’re doing online and publish whatever I find interesting”( Glenn, 05:04). After all, they claim they aren’t doing anything wrong. He goes further to say that up to then; no one had done that thereby validating his argument. The appeals demonstrate also demonstrate pure logic (logos). When people claim that they have nothing to hide, it is then logical for them to provide access to all their personal information. Greenwald’s speech also appeals to emotions (pathos) (Michael, Andrews & Williams, 296). His example on the intrusion of privacy at the beginning of the speech invokes emotions from the audience. It relates to the horror and shame people feel after realizing they someone was watching them engage in private activities.
The main argument of Greenwald is: mass surveillance reduces people’s freedom. The argument can be broken down into the two claims: “all of us have something to hide” (Glenn, 06:26) and is the reason people seek out privacy by placing locks on doors, putting passwords on their phones among others things. “Human shame is a very powerful motivator and the desire to avoid it” (Glen...