passports, patriot acts, and people
Patriot this, monitor that, listen in on this, turn a camera on that. Everywhere we turn, there are more encroachments on our personal liberty and ability to carry on our own lives in peace without the federal government snooping. Some say “if you have nothing to hide, what’s the big deal?” but I think the recent passport debacle makes the point for me. It was announced first with Senator Barack Obama as the victim, but now it’s been confirmed Senator Hillary Clinton’s and Senator John McCain’s passports have also been snooped on.
The problem with letting the government snoop on everything we do, even if we are model citizens, is that the government is made up of people. Some have good intentions, others don’t. Government is not a big non-partial entity that virtuously carries out tasks autonomously, it is made up of humans with flaws just like the rest of us.
We know of three passport activity breaches now, how many more have there been? It took two months to find those events with high-profile people. If government were to keep data on everyone, how long would it take to find that an average Joe’s personal information had been accessed by someone with less-than-honorable intentions?
Who watches the watchers?