Third Blogger Assignment- The End of Privacy

This assignment asks wehtehr it will be possible to maintain personal privacy and civil rights in the wake of continuing advances in technology.

I think the answer is already clear from the last eight years. The Bush Administration has shown us that giving them the power to monitor telephone and internet ensures that they will be abused by someone at some point. Despite courageous whistleblowers and defenders of civil liberties, our right to privacy has been systematically dismantled.

Will Obama change that? There is NO reason to think so. Obama supported the loosening of FISA restrictions that made the Bushes' abuses possible if not exactly legal. It is very easy to see a scenario where he is convinced that he HAS to continue monitoring in the face of people who are violently opposed to his administration and who are genuine threats to the commonweal. (This should not be taken as an attack on Obama; any administration will face the same dilemma.)

That doesn't even mention the increasing intrusion of commercial monitoring. What many people see as beneficial (allowing them to see just the ads for things they're interesting in buying) can quickly become harmful, especially if that information is sent to the government.

So I cannot say that I am optimistic about privacy in the 21st century.