March 09, 2008
Your Privacy is Going to Hell
All of us here at Dakota were dismayed to learn that the US Terrorist Watch List now exceeds 900,000 names. Scroll down to see who made the No-Fly List, and then send your membership dues to the ACLU promptly.
Lest you have questioned all the hubbub the ACLU has kicked up recently, security expert Bruce Schneier reminds us of the inherent value of privacy:
Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy." The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
And woe be to those who do have a little something to hide, just ask Eliot Spitzer.
In The Banality of the Surveillance State consitituional lawyer Glenn Greenwald writes:
.....it doesn't take cackling, Lex-Luthor-like government villains to cause serious abuse. Particularly given the almost complete lack of oversight in how the executive branch functions, it's very easy to imagine the definition of what's "relevant" and "appropriate" slowly (though inexorably) being moved increasingly outward even by well-intentioned though overzealous law enforcement officials, to say nothing of the ones who aren't well-intentioned. In fact, it's almost impossible to imagine that not happening.It's extremely easy to find people who believe that attendance at a political rally, or membership in certain political groups, or even more pedestrian conduct referenced by Priest, constitutes reasonable grounds for "suspicion." That mentality is obviously prevalent among some substantial segment of federal government employees and intelligence and other law enforcement agents. The decades of intelligence abuses leave no doubt about that.
People who think that way, and who are empowered to maintain dossiers on Americans and investigate them, don't think they're doing anything wrong by using those activities to consider certain American suspicious and to spy on them or investigate them further. They think they're doing their jobs, battling dangers. And as is true for all government power, the greater the scope of the domestic dossiers, the larger it will grow, the more uses that will be found for it. And that's true regardless of the good faith of the Government at any given moment or its party or ideology. Variables like ideology or bad faith can simply make those dangers even more pronounced. .....
Even the Wall Street Journal sounds a little worried.
On the other hand, there may be those of you who would like to join the government security effort, in which case you should know that InfraGard is recruiting at your workplace. Your membership will come with certain exciting perks. Be the first in your pod to sign up.
Photo note: You could stretch this one into a metaphorophoto if you really worked on it. You know - windows for privacy and the cudzo stuff for creepy intrusion, proliferation and strangulation. It's really the sculptures in a gallery window which is, in turn, reflecting the building across the street.
Addendum: Interview with Mark Klein AT&T whistleblower who talks about a REAL crime that affects all of us, and his difficulties making himself heard
More about the Spitzer trap
The Spitzer Scandal