I usually talk about life or writing or productivity or things to read or things to think about. I try to avoid anything overtly political. But I just can’t help myself on this one.
Privacy matters. It’s important. Politicians on both side of the artificial dividing line they’ve drawn here in the United States don’t believe that privacy matters. Here’s how I know… I wrote my senators and congressman. I got pathetic responses. They endeavored to reassure me that all surveillance conducted was legal.
I knew that. That was never the issue. The issue isn’t “Are they interpreting laws in such a way that a massive surveillance effort is considered to be within the bounds of the law?” The issue is “SHOULD they be?”
Declaring something to be legal and then assuring us that it’s okay is not the way it works. You have to convince me that it should be legal. I know every one is in a hurry to argue that you can’t have security and privacy at the same. I’m not even certain they’re wrong. The thing is, I have yet to see anything that is a convincing argument that we should choose security at the absolute cost of privacy.
It’s a question we have to ask.