Give me Privacy or Give me Death! - An Investigation into the Intent Behind the Language of the 4th Amendment

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Law - Media, Multimedia Law, Copyright, , language: English, abstract: Every day, people across America readily surrender both significant andinconsequential information concerning their personal lives. That fragmentedinformation is available to the public and can be collected, compiled, or dispersed atwill by anybody who seeks it. By providing our private information to others, westrip ourselves of our own privacy. With every careless disclosure, we essentiallyforfeit a little more of our privacy, leaving us vulnerable to potentially invasiveGovernmental surveillance. Over time, our own perspective concerning the value ofour privacy gradually diminishes, which can be reflected by subsequent judicialdecision. If we are not careful, society’s disposition in general can progressively set adetrimental trend for potential future judicial decisions.Just as history has demonstrated, the general attitude toward our right ofprivacy might continue to evolve as time progresses. The more we surrender ourprivacy, the easier it is to lose and the harder it will be to get them back once werealize that things have gone too far.Justice Sotomayor’s concurring opinion in U.S. v. Jones illustrates that; “GPSmonitoring generates a precise, comprehensive, record of a person’s publicmovements that reflects a wealth of detailed (information) about her familial,political, professional, religious and sexual associations.”Potentially abusive law enforcement practices relating to certain traditionalsurveillance technics were once overly burdensome, costly, and inconvenient. Thisformer excessively cumbersome process would ordinarily safeguard the privacy ofpotential suspects but is now inexpensive and uncomplicated. From Online shoppingto surveillance cameras or GPS navigation units, we are constantly being monitored,surveyed, and tracked. Successively emerging technological advances allow others,including our nation’s government, to monitor our every move.