Privacy Vs Secrecy
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What it is
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The distinction between wanting privacy (control over who sees your information) and having something to hide (secrecy, implying wrongdoing). The "nothing to hide" argument conflates the two, treating a request for privacy as evidence of guilt.
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Why it matters
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This conflation is used to delegitimize privacy as a value — if only people with something to hide need privacy, then wanting privacy becomes suspicious in itself. But everyone closes the bathroom door despite there being nothing shameful happening; the desire for boundaries around personal information (health, sexuality, etc.) is a normal part of being human, not evidence of concealment.
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Example
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Closing the bathroom door isn't secrecy — nobody thinks you're hiding a crime in there. It's privacy: a default boundary that doesn't require justification.
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