The Government And Its Infringement On Privacy

Today, individuals are sacrificing privacy in order to feel safe. These sacrifices have made a significant impact on the current meaning of privacy, but may have greater consequences in the future. According to Debbie Kasper in her journal, “The Evolution (Or Devolution) of Privacy,” privacy is a struggling dilemma in America. Kasper asks, “If it is gone, when did it disappear, and why?”(Kasper 69). Our past generation has experienced the baby boom, and the world today is witnessing a technological boom. Technology is growing at an exponential rate, thus making information easier to access and share than ever before. The rapid diminishing of privacy is leaving Americans desperate for change.

In his essay, “Why privacy is important,” James Rachels argues that in order to “maintain the variety of social relationships with other people that we want to have,” privacy must be thought of as a crucial to our lives (292). However, Rachels disregards our true motives to share personal information, and thus offers a less convincing argument than the subject warrants. Rachels believes that accounting for the value of privacy simply by looking at specific, unusual circumstances fails to demonstrate the importance of privacy in ordinary situations; hence, he chooses to focus on common cases where privacy is relevant. This approach allows him to determine that we value privacy because the amount of privacy we might have with a person essentially

The United States is a nation that was established on several major guiding principles, including freedom, independence, and democracy. These guiding principles have become synonymous with American culture and have helped the nation prosper deeply since its dawn in 1776. One of the major core principles of the American culture that has come into question recently is privacy. Government agencies have begun pushing the boundaries of personal privacy through the justification of hoping to ensure national security. By keeping records of phone transactions, and personal messages, the National Security Agency and its supporters, argue that they are simply making an effort to prevent domestic terrorist activity. However, I would argue that the government's

We’ve all heard the conspiracy theories. Alien aircrafts are kept in Area 51. Obama can control the weather. Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon. Some people see these theories as a product of irrationality but they’re really a product of fear. Ever since 9/11, Americans have been desperately searching for a sense of security within the country that was taken from us. We’ve been so desperate in fact that we’ve given up some of our basic rights in order to restore that sense of security. When you walk through a metal detector at an airport and they scan you for any metal items, would you consider that an invasion of your privacy? Would you sacrifice that privacy to feel safer on an airplane? Most of us would because when the choice is life or death, the decision becomes a lot simpler.

Privacy is what allows people to feel secure in their surroundings. With privacy, one is allowed to withhold or distribute the information they want by choice, but the ability to have that choice is being violated in today’s society. Benjamin Franklin once said, “He who sacrifices freedom or liberty will eventually have neither.” And that’s the unfortunate truth that is and has occurred in recent years. Privacy, especially in such a fast paced moving world, is extremely vital yet is extremely violated, as recently discovered the NSA has been spying on U.S. citizens for quite a while now; based on the Fourth Amendment, the risk of leaked and distorted individual information, as well as vulnerability to lack of anonymity.

The government looks at our emails, text messages, listens to our phone calls and other similar communication devices. “The U.S. has led a worldwide effort to limit individual privacy and enhance the capability of its police and intelligence services to eavesdrop on personal conversations. The campaign has had two legal strategies. The first made it mandatory for all digital telephone switches, cellular and satellite phones and all developing communication technologies to build in surveillance capabilities; the second sought to limit the dissemination of software that provides encryption, a technique which allows people to scramble their communications and files to prevent others from reading them” (Solove). How much of this did you know about? Almost all of our current devices already have technology that makes it an easy access for the government to know about all of your conversations.

Within the Constitution of the United States of America, the word “privacy” appears exactly zero times. Not once does the legal document that outlines the social order of the United Sates, define, or explicitly state a “right to privacy” for its citizens. Even with this fact prevailing over society, American citizens still esteem privacy in the highest regard. According to a survey conducted by the PEW Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America, “93 percent of adults say that being in control of who can get information about them is important… 88 percent [of Americans] say it is important that they not have someone watch or listen to them without their

Would the American people be willing to give up their privacy, freedom, happiness, and decision making in exchange for government protection? What if the government took away these rights against their will? In America, this is slowly becoming a reality when regarding the right to privacy. This right has been stripped from Americans for many years, and the violation is only going to create greater problems. The American government and its agencies are illegally collecting the private and personal information of the America people. There are people willing to surrender their rights and people fighting to protect their freedom. The purpose of this essay is to inform all these types of individuals about the government and their so-called national

According to Vice President Mike Pence, “The Patriot Act is essential to our continued success in the war on terror here at home.” (Brainyquote). Politicians across the political spectrum overwhelmingly agree that the Patriot Act is a necessary measure to protect the citizens of the United States from the imminent threat of terrorism.  After the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001, fear filled the emotions of every red blooded American.  This fear resulted in an uproar and a demand for increased security to stop terrorism.  Politicians created the Patriot Act just over a month after 9/11, and it was signed into law under president Bush on

In the recent year the debate over one’s Right to Privacy has been a very controversial topic. Many individuals argue that National Security triumphs the Right to Privacy, though many others also argue that many national policies such as “Stop and Frisk” and the Patriot Act are actually unconstitutional and unnecessary to protect the country.

Privacy either encourages or is a necessary factor of human securities and fundamental value such as human embarrassment, independence, distinctiveness, freedom, and public affection. Being completely subject to mutual scrutiny will begin to lose self-respect, independence, distinctiveness, and freedom as a result of the sometimes strong burden to conform to public outlooks.

With these recent situations the government has started to dig deeper into citizens personal lives by keeping track of every phone call that is made and received, emails that are sent and received and even what we search on the internet. The most common defense to this invasion is claiming to collect data on terrorist threats. This is all being done through the NSA (National Security Agency) Surveillance Program. Many American citizens’ support the government’s unwarranted involvement in technology and Internet privacy. Arguments that the government has complete right to invade our personal lives in order to protect us have been made. This fifty or so percent of people find it acceptable for the National Security Agency to listen in on phone calls, also saying that they should take it one step further than that. The fifty percent of people who have sided with the government argue that this is the only way the government can protect us from terrorist attacks, because this is the largest outlet for information since we have become so dependent on technology to get us through our daily lives. While many may find this reasoning to be an acceptable excuse to violate one’s personal lives, it is an unacceptable act, and a bad example and message for them to violate the rights that they have sworn to protect and keep in tact. In 2014, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice stated,

The government has invaded privacy in many different ways throughout the years. With today’s day and age technology has evolved to be both a gift and a curse. When asked the question about if the government should be able to invade people's privacy, a common response is, “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to be worried about.” In my opinion, this statement is completely correct. The government’s job is to protect the people. People that break the law have a tendency to hide what they did. If the government can not invade a suspicious person’s privacy then it is near impossible to know that they have broken the law.

First of all, it is important to know the definition of privacy, it is the right to control who knows what about you, and under what conditions. The right to share different things with the people that you want and the right to know that your personal email, medical records and bank details are safe and secure. Privacy is essential to human dignity and autonomy in all societies. If someone has committed a physical intrusion, or, in discussing the principal question, has published embarrassing or inaccurate personal material or photographs of the individual taken without consent, he is invading their right of privacy, which is in the article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights.

How much do you know about the American government? Does the government respect the privacy of their citizens? Is the government violating Americans privacy? In 2013 a guy named Edward Snowden released government files that prove that the government has a file for every cell phone in America. Meaning that every text message, photo, phone call, email, etc is being recorded, making it easier for the government to track down anyone that they want. Americans privacy is being violated very similarly to the privacy violations in 1984, a novel written by George Orwell. In the present day and in 1984 people could be easily tracked down and are being watched every second, of every day. Personally I believe that the privacy shouldn’t be violated for