What's Happening to Privacy?

The recent revelation that our government’s spy agencies have been monitoring our emails and other communications isn’t a big surprise to me; I expected it was happening.

This random peering is just a continuation of random checks that have been going on for some time. By random, I mean searches that have nothing to do with the government suspecting you or me specifically of something, and then searching. I mean wholesale searches of just about everyone, as when we want to board a plane or enter a courthouse. DUI checkpoints are another example, when the police look for drunk drivers but also find some people driving without a license. We get our backpacks checked when we enter a sports stadium, we even get checked when boarding a ship for a cruise.

Sometimes I wonder if some of these searches aren’t more to make us feel safe and secure, rather to really ferret out someone carrying a bomb. We have given up some of our constitutional rights preventing unreasonable search and seizure in the name of feeling secure.  

It used to be that our spies were primarily operating overseas or the government was attempting to physically place an informer or “plant” in a supposedly dangerous group in the U.S. such as Occupy Wall Street or the Black Panthers.

But now, it seems that our government wants to depend more and more upon technology (computers). It’s silent, less dangerous to the operatives, and you don’t have to pay computers a monthly paycheck. It’s supposed to be neutral, and operate within the parameters programmed into it.  

So (this is my belief) we have government computers scanning through our telephone calls, looking for questionable connections. We have government computers looking through our emails, looking for key words (bomb, explosive, jihad, holy war, and so on). We may even have government computers using voice recognition, listening verbally for some of those same words. I expect also that the government sets up phony Web sites, trying to enlist young men in Al Qaeda, and then nabbing them after they’ve stepped over a certain line.

It’s not very difficult for our spy satellites to peer down and listen in to cell phone conversations in foreign countries.  

Back in this country, the tendency to spy on Americans can go too far. When you combine this kind of spying along with all the information on us that private companies have gathered (credit card usage, which Web sites we visit, what we buy, where we live and travel to, who our friends are, and so on) there isn’t much that Big Brother can’t learn about us.

They say they don’t want our personal information and the contents of our calls, but I’m not so sure. Should you ever decide to oppose the government about something, and loudly demonstrate for your cause, who’s to say that what has been learned about you can’t be used to discredit or besmirch you?

The recent admission that the I.R.S targeted Tea Party groups shows that yes, the government can get its hands dirty, and veer off the straight and narrow.

One odd thing is that the really dangerous terrorists or bombers, operating as coordinated groups, know that all phone calls and emails are insecure, and avoid using them. They also avoid using credit cards. Osama bin Laden used a courier to communicate with the outside world. So the people that might be caught are the amateurs, the solo operators, those without much of a conspiratorial brain. Even then, the Boston Marathon bombers sent out plenty of hints about their activities and were never stopped.

I used to work for the Postal Service. First-Class Mail used to be thought of as private and untouchable by the government unless a judge specifically issued a warrant. However, President Bush broke new ground when he stated that the government has the right, under special circumstances, to open and look at mail without a warrant.

It’s easy to say, “If you behave yourself and obey all the laws and have nothing to hide, what’s the worry? These surveillance programs will only catch the bad guys.”

Well, look at telephone wire taps, where the police or government can listen in on a specific phone line and record the conversations. Say you’re an innocent person who just happens, unsuspecting, to call a possible criminal being listened to. You reveal some possibly embarrassing details about your personal life. You then run for public office, and the information gleaned from your phone call is fed to the opposing candidate who uses it in mudslinging campaign ads against you. Or the information is fed to your employer, who fires you.

And this is only the beginning. Video cameras, both live and recording, are everywhere. Face recognition has been developed, so that computers can identify someone, real time.

Frankly, the direction that this all is taking us is scary.

The tendency is to turn Americans into a bunch of plump, obedient sheep, being herded hither and yonder in the name of that elusive thing called “safety” and “security.”

It’s almost as though our computers, and Internet, and Facebook, smart phones and email are another government, offering so much promise and convenience, and yet taking away our privacy and making repression possible.