Mass Surveillance

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Recommended: Technology threatens privacy

As technology advances privacy is becoming far more difficult to protect. The digital age is rapidly increasing the level of surveillance we experience day to day and making personal information easily available. We expose our habits and communications every moment on the internet. Feeling the need to be “at the cutting edge of the new” and “the first on your block to have it” puts us in a race with ourselves to keep pace with the evolving technological world. Cell phones, e-mail, GPS, and the World Wide Web are all inventions which enable us to live in a world where people across the planet are only seconds away. All these inventions, however, also share a common drawback, they serve as a platform for an unprecedented level of surveillance. Privacy is increasingly a thing of the past. To make things worse, the majority of our legal protections of privacy are not tailored to this era. The idea, and fear, of a time where surveillance is omnipresent and privacy is nonexistent has been predicted and discussed by many science fiction authors over time. Privacy is a secondary right that has many benefits but has been often sacrificed. The discussion on the importance of privacy is often included in dystopian science fiction stories. Because I consider the protection of our privacy in the digital age an important issue, it is interesting to contemplate the predictions and opinions of these authors. Protection of privacy is a sidelined issue that should merit more attention. Privacy is an essential feature of everyone’s life. Whether or not they actually have something to hide, many people (including myself) consider privacy to be an essential natural right which could be included under the broad term “liberty”. The U. S. Constitution... ... middle of paper ... ...portant than personal liberty and privacy. Because of the amount of media attention and fear buildup that occurs around terrorist attacks, many people are likely to value national security above all else. This lends itself to the trend of sacrificing our privacy in the name of security. Intrusion of privacy for the purpose of security is seen on a daily basis in somewhat frightening government activities such a wiretapping, satellite imaging, video surveillance, purchase tracking, and email sifting. Although these actions can potentially catch criminals or stop terrorist attacks, you must consider the societal and personal benefits of privacy. At least to me, privacy seems like a right that we should not sacrifice until the most dire of times. Although my fear of government intrusion may seem like paranoia, invasion of privacy is definitely something to be wary of.

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