Privacy is one of those privileges or commodities that we never appreciate until they are gone. I always find it fascinating that our entire world works around this one commodity, electricity, and we never take any time to appreciate its importance; either to protect it or even just to awe. Most of us will think, well, in a blackout, I could just use solar panels to charge my phone and laptop, and get a small stove (if yours is electric) and I’d be good, right? This is all half-true. Yes you can charge your phone and laptop, but you can kiss cellular service good-bye. Those cellular towers require electricity and if the blackout is longer than an hour or so, the backup battery for the tower will run out. Going shopping for food will also be a difficult affair, think cash-only. And if your local gas station does not have a backup generator, no fuel for you.
I used the electricity analog to privacy because like it, we think it will always be there. We think that as long as we keep our posts private, and our image-sharing to a minimum, we’ll be fine. As the video from Vox demonstrates, soon our privacy may be no more and we’ll enter a privacy blackout that may remain “black” for a long time.
