Pretty much.

I don't understand how anyone cannot see that this level of privacy destruction basically invalidates all other freedoms. Anonymity and the ability to be anonymous is absolutely critical in many factors. I didn't realize this as a kid because A: I was autistic, B: people constantly mislead me in many ways (deliberately or accidentally) that made me fail to understand its value until it was too late, and C: In many situations where I grew up they made a point that privacy was not something to be valued... and like point B, I didn't learn how fucked up that was until I was an adult and heard other perspectives.

I will use this one example to illustrate: grades. You know when you are in school and doing a test everyone is graded on their exams and submissions. As a kid where I grew up there was no privacy or expectation of privacy on what grade you got. They would post people's names and the grades they got quite openly or announce who got what in class. If you were a straight A student, everyone knew it, if you were a struggling student, everyone knew that, too.

But then I immigrated to Canada and I started university here (not my first degree, BTW), and when I was talking to people in class about their grades after our first paper, many were like 'mind your own fucking business, dweeb!' and I didn't understand why. This wasn't a piece of information anyone kept private. Even when I was watching early online media reviewers (in this case it was AtopTheFourthWall by Linkara, a comic book reviewer on YouTube) who mocked a part of a comic where students had their grades posted and said that he, as a 90s kid, knew that would not happen since lawsuits would have ensued in his school if they made grades that publicly available.

Then I suddenly started remembering some of the bullying I got as a kid over my grades, with some (much older and not in my class kids) would yell at me and demand to know what my average was... I didn't know what they were talking about, but no matter what answer I gave, they would explode in mocking laughter.

Shit like that made me realize in retrospect the importance of having a lot of information secret is critical, even if that shit isn't illegal or even particularly embarassing. What you know vs. what other people know is absolutely critical in being able to get ahead in life, stay out of trouble, or just survive.

To give you another example: I was stalked as a teenager (a teenage boy stalked by 18+ teenage boys... yes, it happens, and it is exactly as weird as you think it is). My stalkers were really, really aggressive in following me around and watching me. While you can make the argument that they all lived fairly close to where I lived and as such the chances of running into one another was higher, you have to understand that a shitload of other kids also lived nearby and none of them bothered me. Meaning these people were actively stalking and actively spending time in paths and places that I went through on a daily basis. This was in the late 90s and the internet was non-existent, so it was 100% offline.

One of the stalkers had a car and would frequently drive up to me and shout HEY at the top of his voice. As an autistic person I need to tell you that when I hear loud noises like that I immediately turn to look. It is an involuntary reaction on my part, and one that my parents insisted was 100% on me and all I had to do was simply not respond and they would respect that and go away (yeah right). He would also honk his horn and do other shit to get my attention. Sometimes he would insult me, other times he would demand I get in his car, other times he would ask me where I was going and what I was doing. Every time he saw me carrying something, he would offer me a ride.

He knew EXACTLY where I would be and where I was going at the exact time of day. I was going to college prep classes and I would return by a shuttle taxi thing (not a shuttle bus. The taxi driver drove a regular car, but he drove on a set route at certain times, it got me close enough home so I used it) he would always be waiting at the spot where I get off.

After a full year of increasingly aggressive stalking. The guy got a gang of his friends and they drove around my apartment building on a weekend just waiting for me to leave, they would drive around the block and throw rocks, bottles, and other crap they found along the way and sometimes drive swerving the car like a maniac and while blaring his horn and hollering insults at me. They just wouldn't let up. They literally spent the entire damn day doing this. The first thing thrown at me (and the only thing that actually hit me) was an empty cassette tape box at around 9 AM that day, and by 10 PM (yes, over 13 hours!) they were STILL in the neighborhood doing this. My parents sent me on a late night errand to the store to get some stuff and it was at this point that those guys just parked their car and walked into a secluded parking lot.

You might say, surely you knew this was a trap, right? Yes I did, and I willingly walked into it knowing it was a trap. Why? Because I goddamn furious and really, REALLY pissed off. This is someone who I knew nothing about, never initiated a single interaction, never said hello to him, never tried to get his attention first, never bothered to notice him before he noticed me, didn't know his name, didn't know anything about him. The only thing is that the first time I saw him at a gym (or more specifically, the staircase in the building where the gym was. He blocked my path the moment he saw me and didn't let me continue while he was just babbling nonsense loudly and aggressively to his friend behind him who was just glaring at me the whole time... and he would interrupt my workouts in the gym to talk about how tough he was and tell me that I wasn't something that I can fuck with. This is even though I had no fucking clue who this person was) is that it was an endless, relentless tirade of the most aggressive stalking I had ever seen or heard of in my entire life.

The guy and his gang, total of four people, just stomped me, kicked me, spit on me dragged me by my leg, threatened to kill me, talked about him being 'the head of the mafia' like I believed him (I didn't believe him, but he legit believed I believed him), and it all culminated with him saying 'we're friends right? Give me a hug my brother, give me a hug' and he hugged me in a way creepier than it sounds written here. They had ripped my shirt, broken a necklace my grandmother gave me, and all in all made me never want to leave my home ever again. I was 16 at the time, and I first saw the fucker when I was 14. Given that he was driving a car in a country where you need to be at least 18 to get a learner's permit the guy was an adult the whole time.

There is even more details to go on with this. But here is the thing. During the entire time, the guy knew who I was, where I was living, my movements and the timing of my movements, where I went to shop, where I went to do any activity I wanted and at what times.

You might ask... didn't you go to the police after? The answer is I did. I had to throw an all-night temper tantrum to get my parents to take me to a police station, this is because my parents didn't think what was happening was a big deal and I should just forget it and go to bed, telling me 'it is just like in school. He's comfortably in bed, why are you angry?'. To this day my father insists that I was just 'pointlessly angry at a young man driving his car' fully ignoring everything.

So when I went to the police... well, it was kinda pointless. I told them only about the assault, because I didn't know that everything else he was doing was a crime. I also had no details whatsoever on him other than a vague general description. No name, no precise whereabouts, I didn't even note his car's license plate number. I had NOTHING to give.

Meanwhile, as I said, the other guy and his gang knew almost everything about me. They knew the apartment building I was living in, but they did not know what floor or what apartment number I was in. If they did know it I guarantee you, they would be waiting at the door next time and probably playing ding dong ditch at 2 AM. I should mention that the building had no locks on the entry and no security cameras and no security whatsoever, meaning there would be nothing to stop them from doing that if they chose.

The cops did send a car to patrol the area where most of this shit happened, and that was actually enough to scare the fuckers into hiding. But they were never apprehended.

Shit like this is one of the many reasons why I understand the power of information and why being able to remain hidden is critical. That guy was a chickenshit motherfucker, but what would happen if they were competent? What if any IDs I was forced to give online are leaked and someone used them to fake my identity and do crime? Or worse yet. What if the government decides that the shit I wrote or said when it was legal is not cool when they ban it and they want to send me to jail for it?

It is not a world I want to live in.