Finding a perfect balance between individual privacy and national security
Besides watching fireworks and hot dog eating contests, the recent Fourth of July holiday hopefully makes us all pause to reflect upon the basic values that helped build and sustain this country since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Since its inception, the United States has debated and even struggled with maintaining a balance between rights and responsibilities, the individual and the state and privacy versus security.
On the issue of what we want to keep private and what the government needs to know about us, Tony Long in Wired writes:
“We Americans, historically, have fiercely guarded our personal privacy. It’s one of our defining characteristics. Others, who live in societies where personal privacy isn’t so easily taken for granted, have looked on with a mixture of admiration and bemusement. ‘Mind your own business’ is a singularly American expression.”
However, minding the security of our nation the first and foremost duty of the federal government. And it’s in finding a balance between the right to privacy and the responsibilities of “providing for the common defense” as it’s put in the Constitution, that things get complicated.
Even our Founding Fathers battled over balancing this issue. In the blue corner, wearing green trunks is Ben Franklin who said, “He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.” In the red corner, coming in 225 pounds is Thomas Jefferson who said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
You would think that this debate would have been settled over the last 200-plus years. But with each new terror threat and each new technology, the issue rises Phoenix-like again and again.
Back in March, Newsweek published Geek War on Terror, a story that featured Jeff Jonas that pondered:
”…on one hand, it’s clear that with proper knowledge, it’s possible to weed out potential wrongdoers before they fly, check into Disneyland or appear on a reality-television show. But in order to do this, authorities must sift through vast warehouses of personal information, public and private. Privacy advocates say the trade-off isn’t worth it—the systems so far haven’t stopped terrorists, and the Orwellian risks of allowing the government to dip into databases are too great. Unanswered in all this are two key questions: is the technology really good enough to catch bad guys on the spot, and is there any way to use this stuff without encroaching on civil rights?”
Throughout the course of American history, we sometimes made mistakes while we struggled with achieving a perfect balance. Thankfully, the Founding Fathers wisely created a system of checks and balances between the three branches of the federal government that ultimately, time after time, has managed to correct imbalances imposed upon both privacy and security.
What are your thoughts on privacy versus security? Please leave us a comment with your opinions.
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