You've heard it a lot in the past few years: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."

But is this true? Who decides what the government should know and what it shouldn't?  Are your political beliefs or who you voted for in the last election fair game? What about your religious beliefs – should they be monitored by the police? Are your phone calls off limits? Who gets to know what you read and why? The secrets we all keep are both large and small, but they are, for good reason, our own.

The simple fact is this: We act differently when we think that people are watching. Government monitoring changes what a writer will put to the page, where a person goes to pray, and what petition she might sign. It inhibits certain forms of self-exploration, creative expression, and intellectual inquiry.  It changes our political activity and discourse.

Since 2001, our government has collected vast amounts of information about our conversations, our travels, our purchases, and our political activities without any real oversight by the courts, by Congress, or by the public.  The government often claims that this monitoring is directed at suspected terrorists, not innocent Americans, but this claim has been proven false time and time again.  The government has been conducting dragnet, suspicion-less, and warrantless surveillance of our international phone calls and emails.  It has collected millions of Americans' phone records and demanded sensitive personal records from Internet Service Providers, banks, and credit companies.  It has been monitoring political organizations and political protests, in some cases labeling them "terrorist threats."  It has approached thousands of Arab and Muslim Americans for "voluntary" interviews – coercive interviews in which the government fishes for information about family relationships, political activities, and religious practices. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and PEN American Center – two organizations committed to protecting freedom of speech and expression – are hosting a series of events to highlight the relationship between privacy and the creative process.  The events, called "Something to Hide: Writers and Artists Against the Surveillance State," feature a variety of readings by prominent artists and writers designed to provoke reflection on controversial post-9/11 government surveillance programs.

This website features videos and photos from past "Something to Hide" events, and a variety of resources about privacy and surveillance.

The government says that people who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.  The truth is, though, that everyone has something to hide.  We all need a private space free from prying eyes.  It's part of what makes us human.