There is no specific right to privacy in the constitution. We usually dont think of privacy as a privledge, its just a fact and we take that for granted. but are your actions as private as you think? the supreme court decision in 'Bartnicki v. Vopper' states that illegally recorded cell phone conversations were allowed to be published as long as "the information concerns an issue of public importance, and the press did not participate in or encourage the interception of the phone call." This case took place in May of 2001, before 9/11. Imagine the magnitude of phone calls that the government records, justified, no doubt, as an act of "international security." How many calls have they recorded? How many of them were actually of terrorists? how many more were political intrests pursued in an effort to increase one parties influence over the other? How many were used to justify warrants of arrest for potentially dangerous criminals? I dont doubt that monitoring the media and internet are nessicary ways of preventing crimes, however i judge that monitoring phone conversations is an invasion of privacy. Its just wrong. The first amendment gave us the "freedom of speech," the freedom to state our minds and voice our opinions openly, but what if we didnt want to share those opinions? our thoughts are private, untill someone else is listening. how justified is eavesdropping, how far can it go?
these are my thoughts on invasion of privacy. id like to hear yours.
