Piracy and Privacy

The government knows who you call and when. Google can read every word of your email. Your whole life is on Facebook. What's left of privacy when piracy abounds? More importantly, what is the balance between privacy and piracy - assuming of course that said piracy contributes to our overall safety?

I'd like to start by exonerating two persona(s) non grata(s) Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Snowden's name is all over the news, but you'll recall that Bradley Manning was the soldier responsible for sending videos to Wikileaks. Some people call these men traitors. Others call them patriots. I don't know if I think they fit nicely into either category, but I believe that the more we know, the better our decision making will be, and I believe that a transparent government (oxymoron of oxymorons) is essential to a free society. Both Manning and now Snowden gave the public information to which we did not previously have access. Neither of their leaks endangered our lives. So regardless of whether or not they are heroic Americans, they have provided us a service.

What information should the government be able to access in order to protect our safety? What information should private companies be able to sell to advertisers? What moral and legal obligations do companies have to report suspicious activity to government agencies, and for that matter, what qualifies as suspicious activity? To protect these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. So the government is responsible for protecting our rights, but only with our consent. How do the actions of the NSA fit into this equation?

I won't pretend to have the answers to all of these questions, but I can chime in with some thoughts. I don't want to live in a country that spies on me, but I don't think that is what is happening here. Having said that, I also don't want to live in a world in which people fly airplanes into buildings and put pressure cooker bombs at marathons. What concessions will I make to protect myself and others from these travesties, and where is the line? Generally I think the slippery slope argument is an excuse for inaction (like, for example health insurance and broccoli), but if I submit to certain things will I ultimately have others forced upon me?

It is important we acknowledge that there are people out there who seek to do us harm, and it is important we take the necessary precautions to prevent future tragedies. I don't think the NSA's collection and analysis of phone call data is a problem, but I'm glad we know it is happening. The problem here, as I see it, isn't that the government is taking steps to keep us safe, and it's certainly not that they are invading my privacy - seriously I'm only calling my parents and then really only once or twice a week - it's that they did all this without telling me. Unlike some, I - for the most part - trust the government, but I trust them less when they do things I don't know about. Uncle Sam keeps me safe at the airport by putting me in a scanner and my bag in an x-ray machine. That's fine, I'm willing to let a federal agent look at an awkward image of my body in order to be safe on a plane. But I know that's happening, and if I want I can protest by taking a train. Now that I know my phone records are being analyzed, I can choose to use smoke signals...

The way the world is today our privacy is more a figment of our imagination than anything else. But that doesn't mean we should be subjected to clandestine collection of our information by an overreaching government. If we are to trust our government, we need to know what they are doing and why. If you can prove to me that analyzing phone records including mine keeps me and others safe, then analyze away, but tell me that it's happening and prove to me that it is necessary. If you don't, Uncle Sam, I'll think there is something more sinister at play.

Our privacy may be an endangered species, but we don't need to last shred of it to disappear due to piracy. Let's have an open and honest debate about what sacrifices the American people are willing to make in order to protect our safety. An important question, but one in which we the people should have a leading voice.