Whenever the issue of "privacy" comes up, I feel like there are two types of people out there: Those who think that privacy is somehow an absolute, that any data you produce is always too sacred to be shared, and those who think that privacy doesn't matter at all, because they have "nothing to hide".

In my opinion, both of these positions are probably misguided. To me, privacy is a matter of context. There are some things that I would never want to share with anyone, there are things of which I wouldn't mind certain people knowing, and there are things that I would be happy to share with the world. The key is making a conscious decision about what to share and with whom, rather than just assuming that everything is either private or public.

To that end, I would like to propose a kind of "test" you can use to determine whether and how you want to share something. I call it "CITA", a "Continuous Internal Threat Assessment". Let's break it down:

1. Continuous: This is not a one-time test. Your context and your relationships change over time, and so does the technological landscape, so you should regularly reassess what you share and with whom.
2. Internal: This test is about your own internal assessment of the situation. It's not about fulfilling some external standard or expectation, but judging based on your own values and comfort level.
3. Threat: This is about evaluating the potential risks of sharing certain information. What could go wrong? Who could misuse this information? What are the consequences if it gets out?
4. Assessment: Finally, this is about making a conscious decision based on your evaluation of the situation. After considering the potential threats, you decide whether to share the information and with whom.

CITA can be applied to any kind of information, whether it's personal data, opinions, or even creative work. By regularly applying this test, you can maintain a healthy balance between privacy and openness, ensuring that you share what you are comfortable with while protecting your personal boundaries.

Imagine you are about to post something online, or share a personal story with a friend. Before you do, take a moment to run it through CITA and ask yourself a few questions:

• Is this something I want to share? Do I feel comfortable with this information being out there? All of it? Do I want to be associated with it? Should I use a pseudonym for that?
• Who will see it? Am I okay with this information being accessible to my friends, family, or even strangers? Is this the right place to share it?
• Cui bono? Is someone else benefiting from me sharing this information? Is it in my best interest to share it?
• Is this just my own data? Or does it (directly or indirectly) involve other people? If so, have I considered their feelings and privacy? Have I asked for their consent?
• What could happen if it gets out? Could this information be misused? Could it affect my relationships or reputation? Could it have legal implications? What would my future self think about this?
• Am I making a conscious choice? After considering the potential risks, am I still comfortable sharing this information? Am I sharing this because I want to, or because I feel pressured to? If I'm getting something in return, is it worth the potential risks?

Most of us, for example, would not exactly want everyone to know what we say about Uncle Guntram behind his back, so it isn't going on our social media accounts. But we might be comfortable sharing it with our siblings in a private chat. Unless, of course, we find out that one of our siblings tells Uncle Guntram about it, in which case we might reconsider sharing that information with them in the future. And in this way, we are already applying CITA without even realizing it.

But it can also be applied to more complex situations: If I sign up to that free service, how am I paying for it? With my data, most likely. So I might want to consider whether the service is worth giving up my data for. Most of my friends have Telegram, but isn't Signal supposed to be more secure? If I upload a funny photo of my younger family members, would they be comfortable with that? What about twenty years later? Using CITA, you can evaluate these scenarios and... well, probably not post that photo.

So let's make CITA part of our daily lives. Whenever you consider posting something online, discussing a sensitive topic, signing up for an adult entertainment website - take a moment to run it through CITA. Ask yourself: Is this something I want to share? Who will see it? Should/could I use a pseudonym for that? What could happen if it gets out? By doing this, you can make more informed decisions about your privacy and the information you choose to share.

All of us will come to different conclusions there. Of course, if you're blowing whistle on a corrupt government, you might want to protect your identity at all costs for fear of retaliation, ensure that no metadata can be traced back to you, and so on. If you're just posting a funny cat video, you might not care at all who sees it, and that's perfectly fine too. The key is that you are making a conscious choice based on your own values and the context of the situation.

Keep in mind that CITA is not only about the privacy aspect of sharing information, and is not intended to override other considerations, like your moral, political or ethical views. In fact, you can easily integrate those into your assessment. Not using Xitter because you don't like their business practices is still an absolutely valid outcome of applying CITA - after all, acting against your values definitely poses a threat to your sense of self and integrity, and in that specific case, probably a threat to your mental health, and to democracy itself.

This is what I believe privacy should be about: not an absolute (in either direction), but a nuanced understanding of what we share and why, and what the potential consequences are.