I think everyone wants “privacy by default”, they just don’t make the connection between this hypothetical and real life. In real life you’re still spied but nobody confronts you directly.
I mean he probably could hear it, and I hope no one on HN who heard their neighbour would bring it up on the street !
We do not have secrecy. We have privacy which is merely the politeness of our neighbours (which is of course a social construct of behaviour).
The internet has given new spaces that have not yet had the time for us to learn such behaviours. What will help us is making the internet more like our daily lives. No anonymity, etc.
But people somehow think the internet should be different - it’s not and it’s better - if we think our lives should be more free then politics is the pave for that not the router.
The internet is different. There are trade offs to privacy just like the real world, but it is not physical. Encryption exists. It protects real people from real governments that feature oppressive regimes. It protects them _now_, not in some distant future where N protests, elections or uprises have toppled all government entities that abuse their power. This seems to be a lofty ideal that we should all trust each other, our governments, our isps, our web services.
I think the crucial part is choice. You are welcome to blog every wikipedia article you visit, or live stream every activity you partake in over Twitch. But this is not a requirement to use the internet.
Also a lot of people wouldn’t appreciate their neighbor talking (or even hearing) about them having sex.