The work of writing in digital is complicated. I have three blogs and four connected emails to remember passwords. When I figure out all the special keys to open up the books, I forget why I was getting into the blogs In the first place. Granted, I complicate things because I distrust the ubiquitous cloud and the vigilant presence of google so eager to help me should I kindly allow them to track my whereabouts. They want my cookies! It is the price we pay for social media and instant information.
I'm not sure our constitution authors had all this in mind when outlining our liberties. I'm pretty sure that Verizon, Apple, Google and Microsoft are taking liberties with our liberty by selling our digital cookie crumbs to multinational corporate high bidders. Our digital lives are now pieces for profit; gleaned, categorized, analyzed and packaged into decision by the numbers.
Edward Snowden has risked his life to reveal that big data has leaped the cookie divide. Our personal data is avaiable and scrutinized by our government. Wait, Did I sign something that said it was okay for my digital presence to be viewed by a government that I elected to protect my liberties? The NSA claims to need our data for our own national security. What price protection?
Corporate big data is inevitable. Corporations do not rule our lives. We can vote for TGT, MCD, VZ etc, with our money and our feet. However, allowing our government access to our digital lives is another thing all together. We cannot vote out the NSA. We are vulnerable to their practice of prying into individual's digital pieces for polls, politics and policing.
The constitution and the bill of rights are living words written with intention to protect and defend our liberty. That protection is under assault not by any foreign terrorist, but by those who have sworn an oath to preserve our freedom.
Will we buy the NSA security story? Should precedent allow internet and cell phone information to be used to scrutinize and define terrorist behavior? Silence rights, search and seizure law and free speech hang in the balance. They are all rendered moot when government officials are a few clicks away from all the streamed records of our lives. Pandora's box opens to kangaroo courts, officer Krumpky presiding as judge and jury. Who are terrorists? Who defines them? Are they protesters that threaten government security? What constitutes a threat? Who decides?
"The need for this data is for our national security." Is absurd. Every American teenager demands and every American parent struggles to allow freedom to trump security.
The ultimate security is a jail cell. No terrorist can harm prisoners unless of course the jailer is a terrorist. Terrorists are everywhere!" says government, "Be afraid! Be very afraid,"
Is this freedom from fear? Freedom of speech? Freedom of worship? Freedom from want?
Who decides? Apparently not us.
Several years ago a different government offered this country protection in exchange for an ever increasing intrusion on personal liberties. There was this guy who made this speech about it at a convention in Virginia. Let me think, what was it he said?......
Well, Is it really that important?
