What’s the Word: Privacy rights are disappearing
Like most of the people who will read this, I am a citizen of a country which claims to be one of the most freedom-loving nations in the world, and make no mistake, I love my country. And I love it, in no small part, because of all the freedoms it provides, and strives to protect, for all of us.
Men and women have given their lives to protect those freedoms. Our nation was founded on them. Our forefathers set them down on paper for future generations to live by, and for the most part, we have followed their tenets and their admonitions to protect those freedoms.
And along with those freedoms we were guaranteed certain rights as well, like the right to bear arms, and over the years, we have assiduously protected those rights against some pretty heavy opposition.
But there is one right that we seem to be ignoring in the wake of 9/11 and the threat of global terrorism. The right to privacy.
While I’m well aware that 9/11 has made it necessary for us to institute some fairly stringent measures to prevent terrorism, I wonder if it is really essential to nibble away at our right to privacy in order to do so.
Do we no longer have the right to live our lives without being subjected to the scrutiny of our government or some other arcane organization or commercial concern?
A recent article in the Southern Standard, written by our estimable education reporter, Will Stewart, described a new Web site, called k12planet.com, that would allow parents online access to monitor the activities of their children who are enrolled in county schools.
Parents will be able to check attendance, grades or problems at school by simply authorizing the school to release the information to them and then being assigned a password to access the Web site.
Now, while this seems innocent on the face of it, and the parent has the right to this information in any case, doesn’t anyone find this just a bit troubling? Does a parent really need a method to keep minute to minute tabs on their children while they are at school? Actually I’m curious to see how many parents take advantage of this technology. I think it sends a message to our children that, first, we don’t trust them, and second, they have no right to privacy simply due to their age.
And even worse, it seems to me we are setting up an infrastructure that allows one group to spy on another who remain helpless to avoid that intrusion. On top of that is the fact this system is rife with the possibility of abuse and misuse. Anyone can tell you that any teenage hacker worth his salt could probably break into this system.
No doubt about it, our right to privacy is disappearing at an alarming rate. Take, for instance, the recent move by record companies to cut down on the illegal downloading of music on the Internet. Was it hard for them to come up with a list of names on which to visit their lawsuits? Nope, it wasn’t. They simply had their lawyers inform the Internet service providers they would themselves be sued if they didn’t release the names of those using those Web sites.
Did the ISPs try to protect their users? Oh no, they folded like a house of cards, handing over even the names of minors including a 12-year-old girl.
And this wasn’t event the government, it was big business invading our privacy. Is this what we really want? Not me. Corporate America already has way too much access to my life as it is.
Mr. Orwell, you were so right. Big brother appears to be alive and well in this country. Think about it. You should.
After all, big brother is watching you.
(Charlie Johnson is news editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)