Privacy vs Security

With the Patriot Act permitting the collection of information at random looking for signs that indicate a potential troublemakers we are being asked -- told -- to give up more privacy.

Surveillance devices, ranging from lasers that can monitor members of a crowd for abnormal vital signs, to biometric scanners that pick out individual travelers at a distance and link them to databases containing their detailed personal information, are proliferating at an unprecedented rate.

Ways to spy on Internet chat rooms are being researched by our government. Black boxes in rental cars using global-positioning satellite technology to track and map a vehicle's travels, alerting the rental company if the driver speeds or crosses into Mexico in violation of the contract. National standards for drivers' license i.e. a de facto national ID card are being developed. The Patriot Act minimizes judicial oversight.

The government is evaluating a proposal for a universal database hold billions of pieces of information about ordinary citizens.

Current laws are inadequate to keep up with the technology.

How long before we delete that phrase from the national anthem....land of the free.....?


George Washington "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force ... Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master.”