ESLL26
Professor Collato
01/30/15
If a person “has nothing to hide,” then he/she should be bothered by the fact that the government collects, tracks and analyze our personal, private information
Nowadays, with the advancements in modern technology, it is easy for the government to monitor our every single act in our daily lives. Everywhere there are public-surveillance cameras. Our phone calls, emails, bank transactions and any other activities are being tracked. Every second, the government is collecting numerous amounts of information from us to detect any unusual activities in the society. Although what the government does can somehow create a safer society for us, our privacy rights are gradually diminishing. Not only is …show more content…
We have a fundamental need for privacy because all of us have things that we want to hide from others. For example, we may be involved in a crime intentionally sometimes. When we download songs online and share them to others, we are violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This will surely cause a lot of troubles for us. Fortunately, with the aid of privacy, we can hide our transgressions and get rid of the trouble. Not only can privacy help us hide something bad, but it can also help us hide something secret. In the article “Why Privacy Matters Even If You Have Nothing To Hide,” Daniel J. Solove shares an example that all of us will not want to show others our naked photos (342). This is a strong example to show we need privacy for hiding things other than bad things from others. It is impossible for a human being to have nothing to hide and our lives are surely being bothered by government’s …show more content…
According to the New York Times, President Obama loosened the US government’s surveillance rules last year (Keller et al.). While this may be true, our privacy is still being invaded because the government is still collecting information from us. More importantly, the government may change their surveillance rule in the near future again. Now we are happy that they loosen their surveillance rule, however, we cannot predict what will happen in the future. The changes in the government’s surveillance rules in the future may be too unreasonable that everyone opposes them. However it is too late because we cannot get our privacy back from the government