Privacy and the 4th amendment

Since the formation of the United States of America we have cherished our rights that we granted to ourselves as a government by the people for the people.  However, as time has gone by, those that are in power have managed to stay in power and they bring their friends and family in with them. They have created a class of elites, something other than the upper class, they are the political class and they haven’t kept their power by being generous and protecting the rights of other Americans. They have kept their power through a combination of social manipulation and slowly sneaking in laws that grant them further control and power. In this process they have slowly chipped away at our Constitutional rights, most notably the 4th amendment, often referred to our right to privacy.

The 4th amentment reads:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated”

More recently, the most effective tool used to slowly take away our right to privacy is to refer back to our security and attack the naysayers with questions about what they have to hide from everyone and why they need so much privacy. Some may argue that our right to privacy is an inherent right to protect ones dignity. Others may argue that the very argument of privacy is about security. Thus creating a circular conundrum because we want to protect both. All arguments of definition aside, the most basic look at the question reveals not only our insecurities but also our humanity and our desire to be comfortable in day to day life. Some would relate the feeling of being watched, whether by the government or some creepy stalker, to be hunted and treated as a piece of meat. In our society, the social implecations of an open system of survellance that admits to watching everyone would create such a backlash that the political class would be unable to keep a grip on their power. But with a system that does so in subtle ways and denies everything keeps everyone guessing and unsure of themselves.

Since the popularity boom of the internet, the focus of privacy advocates and indeed those that wish to invade our privacy has been the internet. The legalities of wiretapping, web use monitoring and digital information rights has all been put to the question with no clear and definitive answers. Many have studied the subject. One such study or article, ”The End of Privacy” by Jed Rubenfeld, covers the topic in depth. Another article, that which discusses the issue and article even more thoroughly than I have tried here, has been released on Ars Technica. That article can be found here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/from-the-academy-the-end-of-privacy.ars

In the article from Ars they discuss what it means to be secure and how privacy, both in person and on the web is viewed in courts and politics in this day and age. Debates on what is considered a private belonging and what is open for public review is mentioned. One interesting point that I would like to note is the difference between a physical safe with a combination and encrypted data on a hard drive. In a recent article that I wrote on this blog, “Suspect in illegal pornography ownership case forced to decrypt hard drive“, I talk about how the courts viewed the encrypted data as something that the police had a right get access to, though the evidence in it may be condemning  and violate 5th amendment rights. Yet in prior court cases a physical safe combination was protected under the 5th amendment. In either case I would argue both situations as questions of not only a man’s right to prevent self-incrimination (the 5th amendment), but also their reasonable right to security and privacy (4th amendment). Both a safe combination and a decryption code are a form of security and to give up the information is tantamount to self-incrimination.

Now while I can go on and on and on about government violations of rights I think it is best for me to stop here and recommend that you read the articles that I mentioned above. Good luck and Peace!

Sincerely,

Pjerky

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Tags: 4th amendment, 5th Amendment, Constitutional Rights, encryption, government, legalese, pjerky, Pornography, privacy, security