Opinions: May 2003 Archives

So in my words the first ten Ammendments exist to prevent government from abusing it's power.

There is a significant problem however, that has arisen in our modern world. My "papers, and effects" are no longer simply stored in my house in a locked box. My papers and effects are in banks, brokerage houses, insurance companies, doctor's offices, distant web servers, and employers files. Each of those institutions may decide to turn over my person information, papers, or effects without a warrant if they choose. The government might simply just ask for your records.

I would even argue that companies may have incentive to turn over your private information to the government. The governement is a powerful entity, most companies wouldn't want to pay legal fees in protecting a customers rights, especially when it could result in additional government scrutiny or regulation, or loss of favorable government contracts.

It goes along with a thought I have had recently about corporate influence in the modern U.S. It seems to me that the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and subsequent Ammendments do a pretty good job of protecting us from the government, but offer no protection from corporate corruption, and even less from the alliance between business and government.

While I believe in mostly free markets and capitalism, you will note it is easier to put a person to death than for a corporation to be dissolved even when it's crimes are just as serious. If you are anti-government regulation just go back and study the meat industry of the turn of the century. Corporations want to profit, they don't have consumers inherent rights in mind.

A good example of the dangers posed by this alliance between governement and business is the state of video surveillance. Today we will are living in a constant state of video surveillance, not by the government but by private entities. If you don't believe me, then count the number of cameras you pass by on your way to work. How would you feel if you knew your every movement was captured and put into a file, that would be used against you later. It's not all that hard to connect the private cameras into a larger network now. (Add in the fact that it is trivial for a person to modify these digital images, if you want a real fright.) In a few years shared video surveillance will be the norm. Shades of 1984, by George Orwell.

It's almost unfathomable to me that today in the U.S. you must show your papers to move about the country and we are under constant surveillance, but you freely travel from France to what was East Germany without interference.

Now perhaps you think video surveillance is no big deal. After all you don't do anything wrong right? Try and go into a department store with your video camera on and see what happens. Is the department store doing something wrong?

O.K., you say, "What should be done?" Well the first thing I would like to see if corporations to voluntarily state in their privacy statements whether they will turn over your personal information to the government without a warrant. Then I could do business with companies that are "IV Ammendment friendly".

One more thing, I want my library to be "IV Ammendment friendly" as well. One aspect of the "Patriot Act" allows the FBI to get a FISA warrant and get your library records to see what you are reading. The library is then prohibited from telling you that your records were requested. This has prompted some libraries to begin purging their records on a hourly basis so that their are no records to request. I admire this kind of thinking. Check out these new library posters.

NARA Exhibit on the "Charters of Freedom".