Everybody Has Something to Hide
With Apple standing up to the FBI and refusing to create a special version of iOS to allow the FBI to get access the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, but in reality to allow any law enforcement agency in the country to have access to any iPhone that they want, some people are shrugging and saying, "Who cares? I have nothing to hide."
The truth, however, is that we all have things we'd like to hide.
You might think that you don't really care if the FBI has access to the text messages or the pictures on your phone, but think about it more clearly. Your phone doesn't just have the photos and text messages that you currently have access to on your phone. Somewhere on your account is a record of every text message you've ever sent, and likely every photo you've ever taken if you have cloud storage activated which is pretty much the default setting.
So you have to assume that every single text message you've ever sent and every single photo you've ever taken is accessible to the FBI, and any other law enforcement agency in the country. Not only that, but, as I've pointed out elsewhere, you'd be a fool to think only law enforcement agencies will be able to use this backdoor.
You might still be thinking that this is no big deal. However, any government agency using this backdoor will also have access to your metadata. Your phone records your location at essentially all times, so they will know exactly where you've been and for how long you were there. They will know who you called, what you talked about, and how long you talked for. They will know about any and all purchases that you've made, any websites that you visited, and everything that you've read. If they feel it's necessary they will be able to use your phone's microphone and camera to listen and watch you in real time.
The amount of information that they can get off your phone by itself is absolutely staggering. The idea that you have absolutely nothing to hide is completely ridiculous. Somewhere in there is at least one thing you don't want people to know about. It doesn't even have to be something illegal. It could be something immoral, abnormal, or simply something that you're embarrassed about, but I guarantee it's there.
And what we need to keep in mind about this is that in our interconnected, social-media obsessed world it is very easy to fall under suspicion and have all of our data intercepted by the government. The NSA has a policy of branching out "three hops" from people who come into their cross-hairs. In other words, if a friend of a friend falls under suspicion for some reason, whether you know them or not, the NSA now has an excuse to scoop up and comb through all of your data.
In other words, as the link above shows, if a Facebook friend of your Facebook friend, who is really just someone you happened to add as a friend on Facebook rather than being an actual friend, is under suspicion, then so are you. Think about it, the odds are that given the number of Facebook friends you likely have, or have had, it would be surprising if you haven't already had your data collected.
This also means that anybody who knows you is at risk of having their data collected simply for the crime of knowing you. So if one of your 326 Facebook friends whom you don't even actually know is under suspicion, not only will you fall under suspicion but so will your friends, family, and loved ones. They will spy on your children because some random person you don't know online came up on their radar for some reason.
So maybe you don't care if the government goes through your life with a fine-tooth comb, but how do you feel about them doing the same thing to your child simply for the fact that they are your child? What about your spouse or your best friend?
The questions are simply: Do you trust government bureaucrats with your most private and sensitive secrets, and those of the people you care about most? Do you believe that there is no way that any non-governmental, malicious elements will gain access to this backdoor? These are the issues at stake.