We live in a society now that is more inter-connected than any other in history. There are cameras in every phone and on every street corner, microphones in all 'smart' devices and a seemingly infectious apathy towards these windows in to our private lives. Post 9/11 saw the world, primarily the United States, crack down on its security by instituting legislation like the Patriot Act, which was a law basically stripping away the basic rights granted to an American citizen if the government deemed you a threat. Now that the innate fear of terrorism has fallen since then, a massive discussion has arisen regarding what information the government can ethically obtain through digital means and what is really ‘too far’ and should not be breached
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For those unfamiliar, the FBI recently was found to have hired some of Best Buy's Geek Squad technicians as paid informants to track down and eliminate child pornography. For most this issue is pretty cut and dry; if the FBI wants to hunt child abuse/pornography then let them. But when you examine the consequences of this FBI policy you realize that there are a couple of constitutionally-questionable practices that compromises the integrity of what the FBI says they are trying to accomplish. For example, there was a case of a surgeon out of California who brought in his computer to Geek Squad for repairs. An employee ended up alerting the FBI after finding an image on the guys computer, but when brought to court to prosecute the judge threw out all charges because the FBI obtained this information without obtaining a warrant. This is where the issue lies: warrants are there to protect the unlawful search and seizure of your private articles, and when you bring your computer in for repairs it’s not like you are signing a forfeiture of your rights. You expect that all your personal info will remain your personal info and typically that’s how it works. What the FBI argues is that when you bring in your computer to Geek Squad for repair they aren’t looking through your personal info, rather they are merely keeping an eye out for child …show more content…
The government only cares about criminals, so they have no reason to care about your family pictures from 2008, or your favorite Italian restaurant”. Perhaps they’re correct in the sense that the government doesn’t care about those things, but the fact remains they still know and store this information and can use it to their advantage if the money’s right, a la Mark Zuckerberg/Cambridge Analytica. And if you really have nothing to hide the government’s policies will probably never affect you, but the constitution was written with the intent to protect citizens from a large and autocratic government and those who are pro-privacy will argue vehemently that the articles in the constitution protect digital information as well. However, it is true that designing effective laws regarding the privacy of the non-physical is a tough task, and its success will depend on bipartisan cooperation from the government and
For those unfamiliar, the FBI recently was found to have hired some of Best Buy's Geek Squad technicians as paid informants to track down and eliminate child pornography. For most this issue is pretty cut and dry; if the FBI wants to hunt child abuse/pornography then let them. But when you examine the consequences of this FBI policy you realize that there are a couple of constitutionally-questionable practices that compromises the integrity of what the FBI says they are trying to accomplish. For example, there was a case of a surgeon out of California who brought in his computer to Geek Squad for repairs. An employee ended up alerting the FBI after finding an image on the guys computer, but when brought to court to prosecute the judge threw out all charges because the FBI obtained this information without obtaining a warrant. This is where the issue lies: warrants are there to protect the unlawful search and seizure of your private articles, and when you bring your computer in for repairs it’s not like you are signing a forfeiture of your rights. You expect that all your personal info will remain your personal info and typically that’s how it works. What the FBI argues is that when you bring in your computer to Geek Squad for repair they aren’t looking through your personal info, rather they are merely keeping an eye out for child …show more content…
The government only cares about criminals, so they have no reason to care about your family pictures from 2008, or your favorite Italian restaurant”. Perhaps they’re correct in the sense that the government doesn’t care about those things, but the fact remains they still know and store this information and can use it to their advantage if the money’s right, a la Mark Zuckerberg/Cambridge Analytica. And if you really have nothing to hide the government’s policies will probably never affect you, but the constitution was written with the intent to protect citizens from a large and autocratic government and those who are pro-privacy will argue vehemently that the articles in the constitution protect digital information as well. However, it is true that designing effective laws regarding the privacy of the non-physical is a tough task, and its success will depend on bipartisan cooperation from the government and