NSA Snooping Matters, Even If You Have 'Nothing to Hide'

“I have nothing to hide. Why should I care if the NSA is vacuuming up my phone records?”

The news that the NSA has been indiscriminately collecting the and Internet logs of Americans under sweeping Patriot Act orders has provoked outrage from civil libertarians — and even Patriot Act author Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)

But there are also plenty of quieter voices wondering why law-abiding citizens should be concerned about bulk data collection if there’s even an off-chance it might help stop a terrorist attack

Polls aren’t necessarily great metrics of considered opinion in a case like this, but showed that a slight majority of Americans said they were basically OK with this sort of data dragnet. Presumably, many feel like the Manhattanite who told The New York Times: “Personally, I have nothing to hide, so it’s not really affecting me.” There’s even a Twitter account, @_nothingtohide, compiling tweets from Americans who cheerfully welcome our new metadata overlords