" he who does not move, does not notice his chains" a very powerful quote

Every time I watch Glenn Greenwald I learn something. I love this man.

Finally someone who could articulate what I have been thinking all this time. Bravo! I will use this talk as a response to anyone in the future who are in denial about this problem.

For all who value freedom, this is well worth your time to consume. Excellent work.

Before watching the video, I was one of those people who felt that “only if you do bad acts do you need privacy”. However, after the multiple valid points the speaker has brought up, I can safely say that privacy is truly needed and that today’s society does lack the minimal amount of privacy that every human should be entitled to; I agree with the speaker. Every single person deserves to have a certain amount of privacy in their lives. As the speaker said, “all of us have things to hide”. These things need not be bad things. It could simply be things that we are not comfortable sharing with others. However, with the internet, nothing is private. Using certain tools, anybody can find out anything about anybody. As long as that person uses the internet in some way, he will have released some information about him. I feel that this is both good and bad. It is bad as it violates the basic amount of privacy one should have but at the same time it is good as it keeps ‘bad’ people in check. Thus, the status quo of privacy on the internet can and should be improved on. 200 words, Ahmad Uibaidillah, CMM/TB04

116 NSA workers thought this was troubling. Powerful hurrah at the end. What an intelligent man.

I've never had more of my opinions changed in 20 minutes.

14:28 "... the measure of how free a society is is not how it treats its' good, obedient, compliant citizens, but how it treats its' dissidents and those who resist orthodoxy." What a strong, great quote. So true.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I want my privacy - at all costs.

From beginning to end this was a FANTASTIC TED talk! Definitely stowing this one away in my favorites.

I've seen easily over 200 (or maybe more) ted talks, and although so many of them are so incredible and mind opening, this one honestly has to be my #1 favorite. I strongly hope that this becomes one of Ted talks most viewed videos, because it's a video I wish every American could see.

He's an absolute legend. We owe the government nothing. They owe us everything.

“The measure of how free a society is not how they treat it’s good obedient compliant citizens, but how it treats its dissidents and those who resist orthodoxy”

that ending was GLORIOUS!

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake!

More Powerful and Timely than EVER

I've been noticing lately that privacy is becoming cool again and it's refreshing to see. More and more people are getting aware of how important it is and why they should care.

I wasn't expecting this, but this is one of the best talks on the topics i've seen so far!

I can't tell you how much this video is needed today.

Thank god something interesting!! ΙF this privacy issue goes on for decades, the world will probably look like a huge prison. We wont even be able to understand how messed things will be, because in time we ll get used to it. Slavery. I unsubscribed from Big think a week ago because 9 out of 10 or their videos were misleading and dangerous.

It's about being respectful of someone's space and acknowledging everyone has a right to privacy. Respecting people's boundaries 👌💪💞

Perfectly said....and it should be the challenge we all need to help take on.

Thanks . I needed a way to articulate why this matters

I agree with what Glenn Greenwald has said about privacy being important, and is not just for the “bad people”. In the past, I used to think that people should not be afraid of others invading their privacy if they did not have a guilty conscience. However, what I’ve really learnt is that everyone actually needs privacy in their lives. An example of people needing privacy is when they lock the door when they are in the bathroom. Almost everyone who goes to the bathroom lock the door, but is there anything wrong that? Most the time, the answer is no. The reason why people lock the door is because they do not want others to see the things they are doing, even though those things are not wrong. As human beings, it is a natural instinct to crave for privacy. Whenever we know we are being watched by someone, we are at our best behaviour, trying to paint the image that we are “good”. However, if we are constantly watched, this result in the lack of freedom as “mass surveillance creates a prison in the mind”. Thus, privacy is really important because it is the roots of our freedom. (200 words, Isaac Mak, CMM/TB02)

Privacy rights are human rights. Thank you Glenn.

Should've gotten a standing ovation IMHO.

Great talk. This is one if the most important issues facing us in the 21st century. We all need to care about this if we are going to remain a free and open society.

I've been telling people similar things for years. I always get the "If the government wants to watch my boring life, then go ahead?" but what they don't realize is even the smallest amounts of information en mass can create things like extreme market advantage, or social engineering cues, and even more.

This is one of the greatest talks I've ever heard. Glenn Greenwald nailed it. Thank you for this, Mr. Greenwald.

This presentation pretty much explained all of the contents from this journal article which I have spent 4 hours reading, in less than 20 minutes lol.. thank you.

Best talk I've ever listened to. So concise.

04:50 - 05:30 - I love that part :D

This needs more views

The truth is we all have been living in a world of duality, scarcity and shame-if we shifted ourselves into a new perception of ourselves and our world we could heal ourselves, our global relationships, economy and our environment

If you watch nothing else of these almost 21 minutes, I recommend 18:47 thru the end. Stellar and so true. Thank you, Mr. Greenwald -- wonderful TED Talk, and so important.

This was such an important and timely conversation. And it was filmed 7 years ago! You can tell this was unique in the way the moderated engaged with Glen after his presentation

Downloading and saving this video on my hard drive. Just in case this is removed in future.

In my country, people like to ask personal questions and peeking at your personal stuffs. In the cafes or restaurants, people like to stare at strangers and sometimes even hear their conversation. I never see those things when Im visiting another countries.

The last bit was amazing!

What a brave and intelligent man.

For the people who vote this down, they should read 1984

i have not had complete privacy for at least 3 years.not even a room. true story.

"mass surveillance creates a prison in the mind"

One of the most eloquent TED talks I have ever heard! He nailed it!!

Glenn is an excellent speaker.

giving a password doesnt just violate your privacy. It also gives the taker the possibility to be an imposter. Which is much worse.

Great topic to cover so please continue coverage on this topic in the future

Volcanic, powerful speech! Thank you for your work, Mr Greenwald. Thank you for telling us the truth!

Excellent talk. Glen Greenwald, along with Jeremy Scahill, are two of the most courageous and effective journalists on the current international stage and they are doing what journalists are supposed to do - informing the masses about important stuff that affects them and holding power to account. They have my maximum respect.

I agree with what Glenn Greenwald has to say about the fact that privacy matters. However, I do not agree that only bad people, or people who have done something wrong, need privacy. He mentioned that when aware we are being watched, our behaviour changes drastically. I completely agree with this. This is due to the sense of, "This is something I'm willing to do only if no one else is watching." I feel that every individual is different and each of us go through our own struggles and have our own self-discovery to do. Let’s say I am a teenager who was diagnosed with depression and is in the early stage of recovery. I would not want anyone to be able to see my relapses as I feel that would mess up my mentality even more. I would try my best to seem normal as I am being watched, but inside, I am still struggling as I am not given a private outlet to recover one step at-a-time. Every single person is entitled to privacy, whether or not they did something ‘bad’. We make our own mistakes and choices in life. Those experiences should not belong to anyone else. (200 words, Kamilia, CMM, TB03)

I like my privacy. There's a reason I taped over most of the cameras in my computers and cellphone. I live alone, so I don't really need to shut my phone down or store it in a metal box. I'm not talking much.

Great talk. I can really relate to this...Thank you Glenn Greenwald. Privacy in today’s society is very important. Privacy invasions/breaches can place a limit on your “personal power”. The more someone knows about us, the more power they can have over us. Privacy is about respecting individuals. If a person has a reasonable desire to keep something private, it is disrespectful to ignore that person’s wishes without a compelling reason (just cause) to do so. Privacy enables people to manage their reputations. How we are judged by others affects our opportunities, friendships, and overall well - being. People establish boundaries from others in society. These boundaries are both physical and informational. We need places of solitude to retreat to, places where we are free of the gaze of others in order to relax and feel at ease. Breaches of these boundaries can create awkward social situations and damage our relationships. In relationships, whether personal, professional, governmental or commercial, we depend upon trusting the other party. Privacy has a big influence in “controlling over one’s life”. Personal data is essential to so many decisions made about us, from whether we get a loan, a license or a job to our personal and professional reputations. Privacy is key to freedom of thought / speech. A watchful eye over everything we do, read or watch can chill us from exploring ideas outside the mainstream. Privacy helps protect our ability to associate with other people and engage in political activity. A key component of freedom of political association is the ability to do so with privacy if one chooses. Privacy provides us with the ability to change and have second chances. Many people are not static; they change and grow throughout their lives. There is a great value in the ability to have a second chance, to be able to move forward beyond a mistake, to be able to reinvent oneself. Privacy nurtures this ability. The most important reason why privacy matters is not having to explain or justify oneself. We may do a lot of things which, if judged from afar by others lacking complete knowledge or understanding , may seem odd or embarrassing or worse and can have a damaging effect on one’s health. It can be a heavy burden if we constantly have to wonder how everything we do will be perceived by others and have to be at the ready to explain…

This TED talk is very similar to an argument ***** made in his great book "No Place to Hide" which is well worth purchasing, both for its description of the content and impact of the Edward Snowden revelations and for its indictment of the mainstream media. Thanks for this video! :-)

finally someone USEFUL and worth the ideas and evidence / on Ted.

Couldnt agree more. As a person who does music I still believe we deserve privacy. After a while Its a peace of mind thing. It can cause physiological matters. You have to respect a persons inner space/personal life. Just because its not brought to attention doesnt mean you should still overhear or witness.

Walls in my school are made of glass. I feel really uncomfortable knowing that anyone walking by is watching what I do....

Glenn Greenwald is so articulate!

this was amazing - I remember watching this back in the day. Greenwald was an amazing person. I look at the things he says now and I try to understand what went so wrong…

I have nothing profound to add to this video , but man have I read some fantastic comments, and deeply erudite musings on what Glenn said . I have only this… Glenn’s understanding , and empathy towards the human condition is tear inducing in its simplicity and beauty . Glenn is a very important person saying extremely important things❤️

Thank you...! I hope any kid hears that message and grows up knowing that "this is not a crime to protect his privacy, but a must". Kids who are told that privacy doesn't matter are more likely to be the next [monsters] or start forcing others to give up their privacy; or they become the most manipulated, paranoid, fearful and vulnerable persons... I'll fight to protect mine and tell my kids to do so!

Gonna put this on loop for the rest of my life

Every student around the world should see this. I hate when i hear people say ; it´s ok with me i have nothing to hide.

Some great points, and I will definitely start using the "email me your passwords" tactic.

This man says the why i regret to have a facebook account and another social media sites, bad i was too young to get the importance of privacy.

Glenn Greenwald brings up several good points in this speech. Personally, the idea that the government may be watching your every step mortifies me. The fact that they don’t even trust their inhabitants enough, that they have to be on constant look out for you. Glenn also brings up the good point that everyone, even if they aren’t a bad person, have things to hide. For example, would you be willing to be under surveillance if you were on the toilet? What about when you’re having an intimate time with your spouse? Granted, a rare minority may enjoy this, but majority of us don’t. Which is why it was surprising to me when Glenn brought up the idea that people actually say that they don’t have anything to hide. As he said, if you had nothing to hide, you would be able to share your personal thoughts, and your deepest secrets with the first stranger you meet. As such, I agree immensely with Glenn in his views in this speech. 170 words, Renee Lim, CMM TB04

A really insightful video. Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you for the truth god bless you and your work,

It all starts being imprinted in our brains with Santa Claus...."He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you're awake......"

10:09 - 15:21 Is a great summation of this talk and why we should care about mass surveillance and how it affects our ability to find our own private thoughts and actions

having privacy changes the way we interact with eachother. we spend energy on building trust worthy relationships so we can choose who to share our personal info with. in a world without privacy relationships dont have quality.

Glenn's a hero of mine. So much courage, not afraid to punch up!

Excellent talk. I may not be doing anything wrong or illegal, but what I do is still my business and nobody else's. And that IS the point. It's not about having anything to hide. It's about that my lawful thoughts, feelings, and activities are NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS and I reserve the right to share these with whomever I want and for whatever reason I want, be it an arbitrary reason or not. And as for the reasons? Those too are MY BUSINESS. Privacy matters, people.

"Mass surveillance creates a prison in the mind that is a much more subtle, and more effective, means of fostering compliance with social norms, or with social orthodoxy, than brute force could ever be". Until Covid, I was one of those people who wasn't really that worried about mass surveillance. I used to think, "I'm okay, I've got nothing to hide". I get it now.

Thank you so much, this helped me with my English speaking language GCSE exam

Thank you.

This man is brilliant

I agree with what Glenn Greenwald had said in this video. It is wrong to say that you have a guilty conscience just because you want privacy. Privacy is a right that everyone deserves since day one and something that everyone should respect. Glenn Greenwald’s words about surveillance being “prison in the mind” is true. Surveillance will only take away the freedom of the citizens and nothing else. The government should not take advantage of what they have to spy on people without them knowing and come up with a ridiculous theory that the people have done something shameful if they desire privacy. People are only “obedient and compliant” because the surveillance will instil fear in the people, causing them to be more cautious of their own behaviour. It is scary to think that you are constantly being watched because there will not be any way to express your own creativity and freedom. 153 words, Val, TB03/CMM

Fantastic articulation of a challenging topic!

So well spoken

Love this. I have watched 5 times.

Brilliant talk!

I agree with Glenn Greenwald. I remember this thing I saw online once, that certain stores in malls had mirrors in their changing rooms that were actually two-way mirrors, so as to prevent or catch people who attempt to steal. I definitely found this unnerving and to this day, I still am paranoid and make it a point to check whether it truly is a mirror, by using a finger to touch the glass in which I am supposed to observe a gap between the finger and the mirror. Now, I do understand the security risks that the companies face, but like Greenwald mentioned, aren’t they just exploiting our privacy by assuming everyone is a bad person? Wouldn’t we in return feel at risk, since literally anyone could be viewing us? We, in return, would feel the risk in our security. Someone could use the footage of our most private moments to blackmail us and in this case, I think we can assume that the person who holds the authority to view the surveillance could be a bad person, since we, the public are assumed to be bad. 188 words, Elizabeth Mascrinhas, CMM/TB03

All right, but one thing is posting things on social media devoted to be public, and other thing is giving your passwords. You can't see them as equal.

I agree with Glenn Greenwald view on the importance of privacy. That the world has become an “unprecedented zone of mass indiscriminate surveillance”. Mass surveillance in itself is something that everyone should be weary of. As humans, we all crave privacy. Hence the phrase “only people who are engaged in bad acts have a reason to want to hide something”. I do not agree with this statement. The word “bad” is used very loosely in this phrase as is isn’t defined what is actually considered bad. Additionally, everyone, even someone “good” has the right to privacy. Like Glenn Greenwald said, when someone knows that they are being surveyed, it forces them to become conformed and abide by the rules because they know they have no other choice. Hence, this shows that humans in itself, can never behave like they truly want to when they know they are being watched. Thus this proves that as people, we all need and crave privacy. 164 words, Jia Hui, CMM/TB02

UKposts suggests material based on my viewing history , That's not privacy

This is really something to think about.

It is redundant to say Glenn is an intellectual treasure, but I’ll say it anyway. His mental acumen is laser focused. I would never want to get on the wrong side of him on a debate. He does not temper anything he says.

This completely changed my mind on this matter! Great job Glenn Greenwald!

So glad Glenn Greenwald is fighting this cause. He's the man and clearly a super smart dude. Keep up the great work Glenn!

Great talk, very articulate.

Brilliant talk! Thanks

One of the best TED presentations. Actually useful and insightful.

I agree with Glenn Greenwald’s thoughts on privacy. He touched on a dangerous stereotype where people always think that those who desire privacy are those who are doing bad things. This is a very important issue where people have to realise that this is untrue. I feel that privacy is not something that should be selectively accorded based on what you do or how you act. Privacy is not a privilege given to people who are “good”. Privacy is a right. A right that everyone deserves. Regardless of the fact that surveillance is an effective measure to cultivate obedience, the only way this is achieved is by instilling fear in people, the fear of being caught doing something deemed incorrect. It removes the spirit of freedom in people, and replaces it with something negative. Whatever is then caught on surveillance is a facade, and people acting a certain way to seem obedient. Surveillance can only change how people act, but it does not change what is within. It will only encourage a society of pretence. I am sure there are better ways of maintaining an obedient society, instead of unabashed stalking, ripping citizens of a basic human right. (198 words, Jermaine Leong, CMM/TB04)

Very well said.. im enlightened

18:00 ***the essence of journalism

It's getting to be a brave new world, I hope it's not too late to get our old one back.

13:38 is the powerful lesson here.

That last answer was fantastic!

I do agree with Glenn Greenwald with saying that privacy matters and doesn’t differentiate people from being good or bad. I have always been concerned about privacy and that doesn’t make me someone with bad intentions. Glenn Greenwald said that everyone has something to hide and that even though they say they have nothing to hide, they are still not willing to give away their passwords to others, contradicting with what they just said. Privacy is important, not just for people with things to hide, but for everyone. There’s a reason why people have passwords for all their personal accounts, privacy is an individual’s realm for escape. It has always been stereotyped that those that care highly about privacy are those with something to hide, that they are hiding ill intentions. Privacy doesn’t determine who is good or bad because privacy is something everyone cares about, subconsciously or not. If privacy were to be taken away from people, as Glenn Greenwald said, their actions change. When they know that their every move is being monitored, their actions change because the sense of freedom is lost. Privacy is a sense of freedom, not a differentiation between good and bad people. (199 words, Wilkin Ng, CMM/TB04)