Privacy

Geofence Surveillance: First, They Spied on Protesters. Then Churches. You’re Next

by John W. Whitehead March 16, 2023

“I know the capability that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.”—Senator Frank Church on Meet ...

The Right to Be Let Alone: When the Government Wants to Know All Your Business

by John W. Whitehead March 10, 2023

“Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.”—Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis There was a time when the census was just a head count. That is no longer the case. The American Community Survey (ACS), sent to about 3.5 million homes every year, is the byproduct of a government that ...

The Genetic Panopticon

by John W. Whitehead July 28, 2022

“Solving unsolved crimes is a noble objective, but it occupies a lower place in the American pantheon of noble objectives than the protection of our people from suspicionless law-enforcement searches… Make no mistake about it…your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason… Perhaps ...

Digital Authoritarianism: AI Surveillance Signals the Death of Privacy

by John W. Whitehead July 21, 2022

“There are no private lives. This a most important aspect of modern life. One of the biggest transformations we have seen in our society is the diminution of the sphere of the private. We must reasonably now all regard the fact that there are no secrets and nothing is private. Everything is public.” ― Philip K. Dick Nothing is private. We ...

Republicans Miss the Real Issue Regarding TSA Scanners

by Laurence M. Vance April 15, 2022

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is back in the news again, and, as usual, it is not because the agency did something noteworthy. The TSA was established by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (S.1447) that was passed by the 107th Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19, 2001. No Republicans ...

The Iron-Fisted Authoritarianism of the Surveillance State

by John W. Whitehead May 30, 2019

“There will come a time when it isn't ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’” ― Philip K. Dick Red pill or blue pill? You decide. Twenty years after the Wachowskis’ iconic 1999 film, The Matrix, introduced us to a futuristic world in which humans exist ...

The Age of No Privacy: The Surveillance State Shifts Into High Gear

by John W. Whitehead June 28, 2017

We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government. ― William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice, dissenting in Osborn v. United States 385 U.S. 341 (1966) The government has become an expert in finding ways to sidestep what it considers ...

With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

by John W. Whitehead June 1, 2016

“The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease.” — Admiral Ben Moreell (1892 – ...

Saint or Sinner, Government Eyes Are Watching Every Move You Make

by John W. Whitehead April 20, 2016

“The way things are supposed to work is that we’re supposed to know virtually everything about what do: that’s why they’re called public servants. They’re supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that’s why we’re called private individuals. This dynamic - the hallmark of a healthy and free society - has been radically reversed. Now, they know everything ...

Your Data or Your Life

by Matthew Harwood September 1, 2015

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015), 400 pages. Your data or your life. Distilled to its essence, this is the argument of surveillance hawks who want U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to retain their intrusive, unlawful, and unconstitutional surveillance ...

The Surveillance State Lives

by Sheldon Richman January 21, 2014

President Obama has some nerve. He opened his speech on NSA spying by likening his surveillance regime to Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty. How insulting! They were helping people resist government tyranny, and the British spied on them to put down the coming rebellion. In sizing up Obama’s “reforms” of the indiscriminate gathering of data on ...

The Phony Trade-Off between Privacy and Security

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2013

Most people take it for granted — because they have heard it so many times from politicians and pundits — that they must trade some privacy for security in this dangerous world. The challenge, we’re told, is to find the right “balance.” Let’s examine this. On its face the idea seems reasonable. I can imagine hiring a firm to look ...