The Erosion of Privacy

Privacy has always been a relative concept.  In America, it has historically been one of the most treasured of our civil liberties.  However, more recently its sanctity has been eroded by a number of different factors ranging from genuine concern for the public welfare to simple paranoia.  Issue presentations in our class dealt with the decline of personal privacy on three issues:  corporal punishment, the legal drinking age, and national identification cards.  Through these three issues, it is obvious that the laws of America today value national security and social welfare more than personal privacy.

The issue of corporal punishment may not seem to connect at all with privacy rights.  However, as Heather Blalock pointed out in her presentation, this controversy is very much an issue of privacy.  For example, years ago (when privacy was of greater value), the decision on whether or not to use corporal punishment was a parental decision that was respected.  In today’s America, however, parents are chastised for employing this measure and some groups even want to make it a crime.  If corporal punishment were to become a crime, the results would be tantamount to a government overruling parents on the way to discipline their own children.  In other words, the privacy of a parent-child relationship would be gone.  While it is true that the supporters of anti-spanking laws have good intentions, a law that prohibits such an action oversteps the role of government in the lives of American citizens.

Another example of government overstepping its bounds took place on July 17, 1984, when the national drinking age was moved from 18 to 21.  Nick Michael pointed out in his presentation that in making this decision the national legislature implied that eighteen year olds were no longer capable of making responsible decisions.  If this country still valued privacy the way it did at its inception, the government would leave decisions of morality and personal accountability up to the citizens themselves.  By making this decision and enforcing it to the present day, the U.S. government has taken away the right of each young American to make their own private decision.

Of all the presentations in our class, perhaps the best example of the wearing away of personal privacy was Ryan Wicklund’s discussion of national identification cards.  In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 2001, the U.S. government, as well as much of the American citizenry, has become nearly paranoid about terrorist activity.  To prevent a repeat of the 2001 attacks, the government seems willing to sacrifice the personal privacy of its citizens.  Through pieces of legislation such as the USA PATRIOT act and mass incarcerations at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, the government is trying to eliminate all possible terrorist threats.  The latest in the line of these protective measures is the institution of ID cards to all U.S. citizens.  By doing this, the U.S. government would gain access to an abundance of information about everyone.  If this policy is fully implemented, the idea of privacy would be completely abolished.  Information once considered private and confidential, would become common knowledge among government officials. 

In the case of all these issues, many other things replace the notion that personal privacy is a fundamental right of all U.S. citizens.  The government, in each example, is making a misguided attempt to lead the American public.  As a result of these efforts, it is in turn robbing the people of their individual right to privacy.  If such governmental decisions were widely accepted, the result would be an American public that is not trusted to think for itself.  If the combination of a passive public and a strong government persists, the natural next step would be an oppressive government that does not even consider the welfare of its people.

When I heard these presentations, I immediately noticed the oppressive potential that connected these issues.  In our society, where the legislature is so potentially powerful and the public is often so willing to sacrifice its won civil liberties in a moment of crisis, a reduction in personal privacy and bloated governmental power is certainly always possible.  By noticing the connections between these three seemingly unrelated issues, I was able to realize how potentially hazardous erosions of personal privacy have become.  From issues of social welfare (corporal punishment and the drinking age) all the way up to the issues of national security (national ID cards), the dwindling away of personal privacy in America has become problematic.  If this trend of decreasing privacy is to be stopped, two things must happen.  First, government must allow citizens the freedom to make their own decisions, and second, citizens must demand the right to personal privacy, an essential element of freedom and democracy.