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Electronic Privacy Is The New 21st Century Battleground: Why We Must Fight Back
Kelly OConnell (Bio and Archives) Sunday, December 2, 2012
Has America Finally Rejected Our Civil Liberty Legacy?
With the advent of the Electronic Age mankind has seen increasing breakthroughs of communications and entertainment utterly unthinkable a century ago. Along with these advances though comes the ability of government to increasingly track the emails, cell calls, and online activities of countless Americans with increasing ease. In fact, we are being spied on routinely—a fact which is occasionally noted but hardly ever protested in our increasingly complacent, civil-rights illiterate and government-trusting populace. But is our reaction wise? Could not these new government “duties” backfire upon us? And whatever happened to America’s rich history of civil liberties advocacy which routinely aimed the gimlet eye at government power grabs and was not afraid to call out usurpation of protections under the Bill of Rights?
What are the actual rights to privacy Americans hear of, especially regarding such topics as medical records or to abortion? Outside of procreative activities, where else is the doctrine of a constitutional Right to Privacy detailed? Or are such rights, as Alasdair MacIntyre states in After Virtue, just like witches and unicorns—all a mirage? If so, how can Americans hope to fight back against such entities as Homeland Security, Echelon surveillance network, drones, constant Google and Gmail scans, and other privations of privacy? In fact, we must now demand our rights to privacy against the burgeoning government intrusions before our society becomes mirror of Brave New World meets Nineteen-Eighty-Four, if it is not already too late.
The “lives, liberties and estates” of individuals were, as a matter of fundamental natural law, a private preserve, almost literally walled off from public interference.’—John Locke
