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Essays on the right to privacy in us
Essays on the right to privacy in us
Essays on the right to privacy in us
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Emily Burke
Professor Rizzi
UNIV 111
1 December 2014
Privacy:
A Right That is Dwindling Due to Technological Advances
Since the first drafting of the constitution, to Louis Brandeis’s 1890 essay on privacy, to recent cases of breaches of privacy within GPS tracking, the “right to privacy” has been revolutionized over the past few centuries. Within this era, technology has soured past our wildest expectations, putting limitations on privacy rights that most people wished they still had. However, this issue is debated among politicians constantly, all over the world. As Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated “rights of privacy are ill-suited to the digital age”. Although many politicians and historians claim that the constitution protects our privacy rights, it is actually the case that because of recent acceleration within technology and breeches of security that the constitution does not truly protect the rights to privacy.
The “Rights of Privacy” is explained and defined as many different things throughout different eyes and different times. Although subjective, there are amendments that clearly address these rights. Britannica argues that although the constitution does not explicitly protect privacy, within the first, fourth, and fifth amendments, certain provisions were created to protect privacy rights (“Rights of Privacy”).
The Wilson Quarterly proposes that the Supreme Court decisions mark that the constitution guarantees a right to privacy, but legal scholars have rejected this idea, forcing the court to rethink it as a constitutional right. It first uses the Griswold case, which prohibited contraception use by couples. Justice William Douglas wrote that “specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, forme...
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...slation, and the act failed (Hykel). Nothing has been created since the ECPA to protect privacy laws, because it seems as though it is virtually impossible for an act to keep legislation up to speed with rapidly growing technology.
In brief, we have come to a roadblock in the privacy protection problem. Although many notable historians and politicians have argued that we have amendments and laws that protect some rights, it has been proven that almost no privacy still exists. Until we can find a proper system to speed up legislation alongside technology advancements, or until technology slows down drastically, the constitution no longer protects our own rights to privacy. Because of our own astounding capabilities in the 21st century soaring past what constitution drafters and early politicians ever foresaw, privacy as we knew it will never be the same again.
" Various guarantees create zones of privacy. The right of association contained in the penumbra of the First Amendment. The Third Amendment in its prohibition against the quartering of soldiers. The Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures'. The Fifth Amendment in its Self Incrimination Clause.
Edward Snowden is America’s most recent controversial figure. People can’t decide if he is their hero or traitor. Nevertheless, his leaks on the U.S. government surveillance program, PRISM, demand an explanation. Many American citizens have been enraged by the thought of the government tracing their telecommunication systems. According to factbrowser.com 54% of internet users would rather have more online privacy, even at the risk of security (Facts Tagged with Privacy). They say it is an infringement on their privacy rights of the constitution. However, some of them don’t mind; they believe it will help thwart the acts of terrorists. Both sides make a good point, but the inevitable future is one where the government is adapting as technology is changing. In order for us to continue living in the new digital decade, we must accept the government’s ability to surveil us.
Many Americans feel the right to privacy is within the Constitution that the founding fathers wrote. This has not always been the case. Many scholars have claimed that the authors of Constitution protected the right to privacy within the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court initially acknowledged protection under the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause for personal privacy and freedom from government intrusions into marriage, reproduction, and child rearing in the 1920’s, during the Lochner era (Obrien 2011). They then went on to explore the idea further.
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke. When using the web, web users’ information tend to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that enforces companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advisements on social media about how web users can be more cautious to what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining,
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
The United States government is up to its ears in the personal information it has collected from its citizens. Americans are becoming increasingly “aware of these slowly eroding walls of privacy,”(Hirsh) and more than half polled admit concern “about the overall accumulation of personal information about them “by […] law enforcement, government, […] and other groups,” though “they accept it as an unavoidable modern phenomenon” (Hirsh). The question is, how far is too far to trust the government with the collection, proper storage, and usage of this information? Studies show that “Americans believe that business, government, social-media sites, and other groups are accessing their most personal information without their consent” (Hirsh). People should be given the ability to admit or deny access to their personal information. The government does not have a right to use whatever information it wants for any purpose it wishes. Michael Hayden, once the NSA director for seven years, says, “Even I recognize that it's one thing for Google to know too much, because they aren't putting me in jail. It's another thing for government, because they can coerce me” (Hirsh). The United States government's ability to collect information about its citizens and residents should be restricted by what kind of information it can take, how it can acquire it, and what it can use it for.
The word “privacy” did not grow up with us throughout history, as it was already a cultural concept by our founding fathers. This term was later solidified in the nineteenth century, when the term “privacy” became a legal lexicon as Louis Brandeis (1890), former Supreme Court justice, wrote in a law review article, that, “privacy was the right to be let alone.” As previously mentioned in the introduction, the Supreme Court is the final authority on all issues between Privacy and Security. We started with the concept of our fore fathers that privacy was an agreed upon concept that became written into our legal vernacular. It is being proven that government access to individual information can intimidate the privacy that is at the very center of the association between the government and the population. The moral in...
The right to privacy is listed out in the fourth amendment. The constitution is considered the supreme law of the land. The fourth amendment has three components. The first is that U.S. citizens have the right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects." The second protects U.S. citizens by prohibiting “unreasonable” search and seizures, which are without probable cause. The third component states that “no warrant may be issued to a law enforcement officer unless that warrant describes with particularity "the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" ("Legal Dictionary"). The three components of the fourth amendment lay down the ground work so that U.S. citizens like us have certain rights, which are expressly written.
Privacy is one of the severe issue in today’s Modern Technology era, tied to human right around the world. Most countries have started thinking differently regarding between the people’s right and national security, and trying to leverage on new technology to detect potential national threats without hurting people’s privacy. However, there's a blurred line between privacy violation and government surveillance. (Sánchez, Levin & Del, 2012) It would be a learning process for governments to seek an optimum balance between retain integrity of privacy right and eliminate national threats in order to make the country better.
The fight for privacy rights are by no means a recent conflict. In fact, there was conflict even back in the days before the revolutionary war. One of the most well-known cases took place in England, ...
The Bill of Rights, on the other hand, contains certain clauses that protect specific aspects of privacy like the 1st Amendment, privacy
Perhaps the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said it best when he claimed that privacy is no longer a “social norm.” Virtually everyone has a smart phone and everyone has social media. We continue to disclose private information willingly and the private information we’re not disclosing willingly is being extracted from our accounts anyway. Technology certainly makes these things possible. However, there is an urgent need to make laws and regulations to protect against the stuff we’re not personally disclosing. It’s unsettling to think we are living in 1984 in the 21st century.
The privacy of the individual is the most important right. Without privacy, the democratic system that we know would not exist. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which our country was founded. There are exceptions to privacy rights that are created by the need for defense and security.
Americans’ personal privacy is being to be ruined by the rise of four different types of surveillance system. The four are: federal government agencies; state and local law enforcement entities; telecoms, web sites and Internet “apps” companies; and private data aggregators .The right to privacy is not derived from any source; however the Declaration of Human Rights states that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor attacks upon his honor or reputation"(Stone 348). The right to protection is also secured by the Privacy Act of 1974 and found through the in the first, fourth and fifth amendments of the United States Constitution.
In September 25, 1789, the First Amendment protects people’s privacy of beliefs without government intrusion. The Fourth Amendment protects one’s person and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures. On February 1, 1886 in Boyd v. U.S. Supreme Court recognized the protection of privacy interests under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In the 1890s, the legal concept of pr...