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Privacy is an extremely complicated subject that encompasses many
different angles. It is also a subject that has shifted and changed
dramatically over the years and continues to do so with technology,
age and the world around us. It is hard to grapple with the concept of
individual privacy, privacy regulated by government and the search for
a reasonable balance. Within my research and my personal views on
privacy, I have found it hard to comprehend what the right answer is
regarding privacy for the greater good. It is apparent that the
concept of privacy needs to be reinvigorated in our current society
and given more emphasis. The general definition of privacy is the
state or condition of being free of being observed or disturbed by
other people. In my previous paper my personal definition was a moment
to be alone, free of interruption or distraction. Both definitions
appear to be very similar however, I believe that they are vague and
only begin to scratch the surface of the true meaning of privacy.
Communication has significantly changed in todays society.
People communicate primarily through social media, text messages and
other smart phone applications. Many Americans chose to disclose
excessive amounts of personal information on social media, their likes
and dislikes, contact information, location information, photos, etc.
This excessive amount of sharing has changed the way younger
generations view privacy. Privacy appears to becoming obsolete in the
realm of social media. Stalking, hacking, messaging snooping and the
constant fascination of what your peers are doing. This has also
created a false sense of intimacy and security. I believe that younger
generations are unaware of the mark and importance their social media

S
presence has on their life and their privacy. Once pictures and
statuses are posted to social media outlets like Facebook they can be
copied, altered and remain on the Internet permanently. People need to
be aware of the consequences that can follow from social media
saturation. It can play a role in schools, employment, getting in
trouble and other important aspects of life. The law protects you
again self-incrimination, but it doesnt cover voluntary gloating,
confessions or stupidity. Youre protected against a forced
confession, but not against you questionable choice to videos and
social media posts, this highlights the very important difference
between what goes on in your mind and what you should share.
Industrialization and technology have played major roles in the
transformation of the publics perception of privacy. In the late
1800s hand held snap cameras made available to the public were viewed
as an invasion of personal privacy. People and journalist were able to
take pictures in public places for the first time. I could only
imagine how this new device and the idea around the device of anyone
being able to capture a permanent image of another individual were
both exciting and frightening. In the 1960s and 1970s social anxiety
grew around the idea of new technology and government having the
capability to collect and store information. This information was
stored in large data banks or databases on individual people. Citizens
and legislators began to realize that there were dangers posed with
this information, which could also be abused. The Privacy Act of 1974
was enacted out of compromise between two competing bills. The bill
protects records about individuals that can be retrieved by personal

4
identifiers like name, social security numbers and other identifying
numbers or symbols. Individuals are entitled to access their records
and are able to make corrections if necessary. The act also protects
disclosure of these records without written consent from the
individual. This act was enacted to keep individuals records safe from
the invasion of privacy through the misuse of records by Federal
agencies.
I have found that Americans throughout history have extreme mixed
emotions and perspectives on the idea of privacy. Some have the urge
to fight for their right to privacy, where others are willing to give
up those rights as an obligation to the people and America. We are
more inclined to give up these rights in times of extreme distress
where people fear for our national security. In many of these cases
Americans sacrifice a great deal of individual privacy with no real
gain. Major events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon completely changed and reshaped Americas view on
privacy and safety. The people of America wanted and demanded
immediate action and were terrified for good reason.
President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law on
October 26, 2001. Patriot is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act. This bill extended the governments powers in
investigating terrorism. Some of the most controversial provisions
associated with this bill are: information sharing, roving wiretaps,
access to records, foreign intelligence wiretaps and searches, sneak
and peak warrants and material support. These provisions were put

S
into place to protect Americans but also appear to breach privacy and
indirectly violate provisions in The Privacy Act. Critics highlight
that unrestricted sharing could lead to massive databases on citizens
who are not criminals. A violation of privacy can be applied to anyone
who comes into contact with a suspect and lead to potential guilt by
association. Critics also state that it could be hard to detect and
reveal abuses made by the government.
Air travel and air safety were another aspect of American life
that greatly changed after the 9/11 attacks. The Aviation and
Transportation Security Act created the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA). The TSA put into effect stricter guidelines on
passenger and luggage screenings. These steps towards safer air
transportation significantly changed the way people travel and began
incorporating methods that directly invade personal privacy. Only
ticketed passengers are allowed through security. Extensive screenings
for weapons and other destructive items were put in place and
passengers are required to remove their shoes and banned from bringing
liquid through security. The most controversial change was the body
scanners that were installed with imaging software that ultimately
stripped searched passengers. Passengers were given the option to opt
out of this invasive screening; however, in many cases this led to
uncomfortable pat downs and other search procedures. People felt that
this was an invasion of privacy and directly violated the Fourth
Amendment. With public pressure and stories of abuse by employees,
Congress voted to have privacy-protecting software installed. This
ultimately led to the use of less invasive imaging software.

6
Attacks like bombings, shootings or other acts of extreme
violence change the publics opinion of what privacy is and should be.
I also believe that events like these bring into effect the double
standard that Amitai Etzioni talks about in his book The Limits of
Privacy. He states that we seek to enshrine our own privacy while
denying that of others, on the grounds that we are innocent but
they are suspect. I know that for myself personally I have had brief
moments of lapse where I have shared these ideas. Another event that
personally changed my perspective on privacy and the idea of
surveillance was the Boston Marathon Bombings that occurred on April
15, 2013. It was the first time I realized how easily it is to be
identified and misidentified in the world we live in today. Due to a
crowd-sourced investigation innocent people were singled out and
labeled as suspects and vicious criminals. What started as an
atypical request by the FBI to gather evidence from the public quickly
morphed into a much uglier digital witch hunt, one where the crowds
fears, prejudices, and suspicions were doled out based on shreds of
circumstantial evidence. Their information rapidly spread over the
Internet tarnishing their names and identities. Some of these people
feared for their lives viewing social media profiles and groups filled
with threatening messages. The media also played a significant role in
the misidentification process hungry for any new information.
Although media outlets have been quick to lump all of the crowd-
sourced efforts together, there were two very different processes
occurring which proved to have drastically different outcomes: crowd-
sourced intelligence gathering a massive success and crowd-sourced

7
crime solving an abysmal failure. The FBI only ever asked for the
first, but both happened simultaneously. They each offer important
glimpses into major issues surrounding the future of law enforcement,
justice, and surveillance. Technology is ever advancing and people
are more inclined to get involved via social media and other online
sources. People have the resources readily available and I believe
this puts our privacy and security at greater risk.
So what can we do to protect our privacy on a local and global
scale? Creating awareness within younger generations is a start. We
need to be made aware of the positive and negatives of a society with
no privacy. Our personal information about our families, income,
addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social security numbers
are worth money to legitimate and illegitimate businesses. Companies
want to know as much as possible about individuals in order to sell
more products, services and advertisements. We need to be more aware
of the information we are releasing on the Internet and on our social
media. The more information you share online the easier it is for
someone to obtain it. We need to be more aware and thoughtful when
sharing our social security number, even the last four digits. Other
ways to protect us digitally are creating secure passwords, two-factor
authentication, setting up alerts, making sure our online presence is
relatively private and evaluating our security settings. It is also
important to encrypt your computer and emails, use an IP masker and
clear your browser history and cookies on a regular basis. Ignoring
these is like sending your personal information out onto the trapeze
without a safety net. It might do fine or it could get ugly.

8
Educating the American public about the law and technology of
government surveillance is also very important. Americans need to be
made aware of what the government is capable of doing and the possible
threat of surveillance and how to properly defend ourselves against
it. There are four concepts to consider when making security
decisions: assets, threats, risks and adversaries. Assets are
something you value and want to protect. Digital assets can be emails,
instant messages, data files and web sites as well as computers
holding the information. A threat is something bad that can happen to
an asset. A risk is the possibility of a threat happening to a
specific asset and the outcome or amount of damage that can happen.
People need to evaluate the value of the asset they are trying to
protect and the risks associated with protecting those assets. An
adversary is any person or thing that poses a threat against an asset.
Examples of adversaries that pose a threat to digital privacy and
security are: U.S. government agents, foreign governments, civil
litigants, companies with access to your data, employees, hackers,
stalkers, private investigators or other parties who wish to
eavesdrop.
Knowledge is power. In order to have the ability to comprehend
how to secure ourselves from the government we need to be made aware
of the governments capabilities and limitations. The Fourth Amendment
allows us the right to be secure in house, paper and effects against
unreasonable searches and seizures. This cannot be violated and no
warrants can be issued without probable cause supported by the Oath or
affirmation particularly describing the place to be searched and the

9
person or things being seized. There is however a grey area in regards
to privacy and protection under the Fourth Amendment in exposing
information to another person or to the public at large and it is easy
to expose more than intended. An example of this is engaging in
transactions with your bank, phone company, insurance company and even
your grocery store loyalty card. By engaging in transactions with
your bank or communicating phone numbers to your phone company for the
purpose of connecting a call youve assumed the risk that they will
share that information with the government. It is easy for the
government to collect third party records without any notification. It
is also important to research and understand the proper protocol in
regards to search warrants, sneak and peak searches and warrantless
searches. A few privacy tips in regards to these searches are being
aware of keystroke loggers that may have been installed onto your
computer or keyboard and using anti-spyware software which can also
protect you against identity thieves and commercial data harvesters.
Another aspect to consider while discussing collecting and viewing
personal information is the NSAs mass collection of phone records.
These phone records can yield vast amounts of identifying information
about callers including details about family, political, profession,
religious and sexual associations along with medical conditions,
financial and legal connections.

Data stored on a person or organizations computer like documents,
computer files, communication records and other information that tends
to collect, should be organized and destroyed over a period of time.

1u
It is also beneficial to have a written policy or statement with the
length of time documents are kept. This will ensure that you have not
destroyed or hid evidence. People who are concerned with document
privacy should also apply this method to paper documents as well,
making sure to shred or destroy them. People looking to protect their
privacy should also keep online browsing in mind. Government forensic
experts can retrieve viewed web pages off search engines like Google
exposing years of search results. I personally have never used the
website Tor, but a significant amount of articles have highlighted the
site in regards to browsing security and privacy. Tor is an example of
free software and an open network that allows users to improve privacy
and security on the Internet, it helps to protect against Internet
surveillance. Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them,
connects to new sites, instant messaging services, etc. and blocks
individuals local Internet providers.
Encryption is another important aspect in digital privacy and
security. Encryption is the translation of data into a secret code.
Encryption is an effective way to achieve data security. In order to
read an encrypted file the user must have access to a secret key or
password that allows the user to decrypt or unencrypt the data. Using
an encryption can help to protect against potential threats. It can
also help protect confidentiality and audits files to ensure they have
not been tampered with. Encryption can also be used in a negative
manner. Etzioni points out, that encryption is and has been used by
criminals and terrorists to conceal their activities. There are
specific threats regarding the use of encryption to law enforcement,

11
public safety and national security. Five threats discussed in the
book were: Encryption making it impossible to obtain necessary
evidence. Encryption causing frustration in communication
interceptions that reveal valuable information about the intentions,
plans and membership of criminal organizations and generate leads for
criminal investigations. Encryption hindering the gathering of
intelligence and the last argument being that encryption can also lead
to greater violations of privacy than would otherwise have occurred.
With issues regarding privacy and protecting our privacy many
aspects have to be considered. From the most basic form of respecting
ones individual privacy to finding a balance between the common good
and government regulation. However, this process can be challenging.
Many of these aspects can be looked at from multiple viewpoints and
perspectives causing contradiction and confusion. Throughout my
research process I have found myself strongly agreeing with one
viewpoint but understanding and agreeing with the opposition as well.
It is apparent that as time continues to advance and history continues
to repeat itself privacy will continue to be an evolving topic. Some
believe that privacy will become extinct and obsolete. I disagree. I
believe that people, especially younger generations living in a world
of new technology and communication, will be made hyper aware of the
dangers of living in a society with little to no privacy.





12
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2uu6. Web. 1S Nai. 2u14.
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