Privacy

 

It’s astonishing to think about how little privacy we actually have here in the United States. We think of the US as being the land of the free, but finding out the truth about our lack of privacy may make you think differently. The TED talks truly expose the degree to which our privacy is completely invaded by the government. From collecting data on where we go based on our license plates to having the ability to wiretap our personal phone calls, these issues are very concerning. There are many companies out there that we don’t even know about, that are collecting data on us daily. Almost every move we make can be monitored and watched. License plate scanning, facial recognition, and cellphone tower location technology make it possible for someone to know where we are at all times. We are never truly alone.



These issues affect us all. I have several social media accounts, which means I have “electronic tattoos”. It's likely that my face is in some database somewhere, so at any given time I could be identified using certain technologies. The government should be putting a stop to the use of this technology for the surveillance of citizens. Technology allows our privacy to be completely invaded without consequence. I could argue that this technology is a violation of the fourth amendment, which states “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”. Therefore, I believe it could be argued that the use of this technology as a form of surveillance of citizens is unconstitutional. As it stands, the best way to protect ourselves from this invasion of privacy is to be smart about what we put on the internet. We should be aware of the intentions of certain websites and keep our valuable information from illegitimate websites and applications. We should limit the amount of information we disclose online, we know this information is being collected as data and then affects us. We can try to prevent our data from being collected by not making it easy to access. 


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