According to this the idea was coined even before WWI

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

The origin of the quote is not Goebbels.

Someone else has traced the quotation to a novel by Upton Sinclair in The Profits of Religion (do a books.google.com search for the phrase and you will find it.

In short, it is highly unlikely that Goebbels said this. As is usually the case with such quotations, no one who cites it provides a source.

Randall Bytwerk, expert in Nazi propaganda (Prof. Randall Bytwerk)

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/30683/is-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide-you-have-nothing-to-fear-a-line-used-by-joseph#40126

It really comes down to trust, or the lack thereof. People don't trust their governments and governments don't trust their people. I think this mistrust originates from governments so often being imposed on the people, rather than the government being subordinate to the people. If the government were truly subordinate to the people, I don't think privacy would be nearly as much of a concern.

Vimes has always been one of my favorite characters in all media lol

Who would you be more suspicious of? A neighbor who always keeps their blinds closed? Or the neighbor who always peeks out of their window?

If the NSA has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from Snowden

Upton Sinclair also referenced a similar argument in his book The Profits of Religion, published in 1917 :

Not merely was my own mail opened, but the mail of all my relatives and friends — people residing in places as far apart as California and Florida. I recall the bland smile of a government official to whom I complained about this matter: "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear." My answer was that a study of many labor cases had taught me the methods of the agent provocateur. He is quite willing to take real evidence if he can find it; but if not, he has familiarized himself with the affairs of his victim, and can make evidence which will be convincing when exploited by the yellow press.[2]

my friend who is ex military, has a smart house built around amazon Alexa said he had nothing to hide, when i rebuffed with how that phrase has nazi ties he'd gone white.

propaganda is an amazingly powerful thing all you need is a catchy sentence and itll will be repeated years after.

Everyone closes the bathroom door when they poop.

I usually ask if they also shit with the door open on a public restroom, since they got nothing to hide.

OK so I'm a privacy advocate. I'm pro privacy, pro simplicity and accessibility for none techies. I'm pro Snowden and everything.

But,

there is no evidence for this attribution. You can often find it in reader comments and on social media with the source: “Goebbels, speech on the introduction of the GeStaPo 1933”. There was no such speech, nor was there an “Introduktion der Gestapo”, an expression that is completely unusual in German.

Edit: I actually found the interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flej-73VLW8) but can't even find the spot where he's actually making the claim seen in the picture. What the fuck is this??????

I don't know about the quote in question, but I do find it quite absurd when people still feel the need to distance the American government from the Nazis, when it is a well documented fact that the actions of the former inspired and shaped the latter with systems that either still exist in one form or another, or have left a horrific legacy (Native American reservations, the prison industrial complex, racial wealth gaps, to name a few off the top of my head).

Uhhhh, I fucking looove Discworld! GNU Terry Pratchett.

Piracy is the foundation of all other rights - that's a good line.

Easy way to shut up any idiot: If you got nothing to hide, gimme all your passwords, also all the info on your credit cards.

People who say this seem so very unwilling to practice what they preach and abandon their privacy.

This is all in reference to the government.

Ask a person if they care about privacy from the government, you'll get most yes. Ask them if they care Google sells anonomized data about what they are searching for, and most won't give 2 fucks.

For most people they would be happy with strong protections from the government buying private data if they actually were presented the argument in a way they understood.

And that's why nobody listens to privacy advocates, this type of shit.

"... A great, rolling sea of evil. Shallow in some parts, yes, but deeper... oh, so much deeper in others. But men like you build these little rafts out of rules and vaguely good intentions and you say 'This is the opposite. This will triumph in the end.' Fascinating."

-Vetinari to Vimes

Paraphrased from the top of my head haha sorry if I've mucked it up. God what a character Vimes is. I do believe he also quoted guilty of thinking something like "everyone is guilty of something if you could only find out what," so maybe not a paragon of privacy in every iteration but a fantastic character nonetheless. Certainly gotta be among the best cops in fiction, considering he also nearly won a sort of people's revolution haha.