By Haddon Libby
Should the police be able to go through your house, including your sock drawer, whenever they want? Should they be able to read your personal communications without your knowledge?
Hopefully, you said ‘no’ as this one of your basic personal freedoms afforded by the Bill of Rights and covered by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Nevertheless, federal and local governments and police forces are usurping this right from you every day.
As an example, in Rochester, New York, renters (not home owners) have to face the inspections of their homes every six years. The city does this under the guise that they are providing a certificate of occupancy. Inspectors are permitted to look for “any violation of federal, state, county or city law, ordinance, rule or regulation.” They can look inside of closets and drawers to make sure that the residence is “clean and sanitary.” If they find other violations, they can prosecute the renter under the law, take away their children and take any other actions that they feel are necessary. Gary Kirkmire, the director of Inspections in Rochester says that the inspections are required of only rentals as “owner occupants take better care of their property…it’s not rocket science.”
Incredibly, the New York Supreme Court upheld the city’s right to inspect everything in a renter’s home while the U.S. Supreme Court denied a hearing on the law.
As a reminder, this behavior by the city is exactly what the British did against the Colonists in order to catch smugglers and tax cheats before using this power to harass those standing in opposition to British rule.
Apple recently drew the ire of the FBI and NSA when they announced that iPhones no longer have ‘back doors’ that allow law enforcement to hack into your phone in wireless, warrantless searches of your private communications.
Google subsequently announced that they will begin giving customers the ability to encrypt their communications this month. It was recently leaked that the NSA can remotely turn on 75% of all Android smartphone cameras and microphones without the owner’s knowledge (or a warrant) and even when the phone is turned off.
European computer magazine, Heise, has reported that the FBI and NSA can already hack into all Windows-based computers as well as 96% of all new cars.
Verizon and AT&T reported that they responded to 1.3 million requests from law enforcement for information in 2011. In an infamous hack by the Bush Administration, they monitored phone calls of reporters at The New York Times and Keith Olbermann, as both were considered to be ‘enemy combatants’ under terrorism laws. In reality, both were harsh critics of the administration’s policies.
In actuality, 200 million of us are considered ‘potential enemy combatants’ as we live in “constitution-free zones” which are defined as areas within 100 miles of a border. This is an area that the Department of Homeland Security has designated as areas where they can perform any search or seizure without probable cause.
Given recent abuses by the IRS, the NSA and numerous local police departments, it is not a stretch to assume that this extraordinary power will not be abused. Most troubling is that all of this is done in violation of our Constitutional rights as citizens of the United States.
If all of this does not bother you, realize that by creating back doors in all of our technology, some sophisticated superpower bent on hurting the United States might use these back doors to shut down power systems, affect our stock markets or in some other way harm the lives of millions of Americans.
Once you start down the slippery slope of compromises and violations of your personal privacy, where does it stop?
