Inside One Man's Anti-Privacy Campaign

The world would be better off without secrets, says an Arizona man, and he's willing to prove it. Noah Dyer is pushing a Kickstarter project which, if funded, would see his entire life made public as camera crews follow him around for a year "without even 1 second of privacy," all broadcast via a live stream. The project is nowhere near its goal (due tomorrow), but Dyer is already making good on his anti-privacy project, having sent his email password and bank records to Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic. Dyer argues that our society is unfair when the powerful—in government and corporations, for instance—have the added advantage of broader access to information.

What's more, if we all shed our right to privacy, we'd behave better, he believes. He notes that he has had sex with married women, "missed child support payments, settled debts, and probably done other stuff as well … Each of these decisions was made in an environment where the understanding was that they would be kept private." Friedersdorf, for his part, admires Dyer's commitment to his beliefs; indeed, if Dyer raises $700,000, he plans to run for political office, as Engadget points out. But Friedersdorf observes that such behavior affects everyone else the man interacts with—people who might not share his beliefs. And they're not the only ones who'd prefer a little privacy. (More privacy stories.)