towards a Privacy Amendment

Yesterday I started thinking that it's about time we start talking nationally about having an amendment to the US Constitution protecting individual privacy. It would buy us a few decades, perhaps.

I decided to poke around to see if other people are thinking similarly, and it turns out that some people are.

One reply to that post argues that the Fourth Amendment protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures" is sufficient. I disagree: that coverage does not deal at all with data-gathering by the government, the sharing of data between government and contractors, and so on. It does not deal with casual surveilance of city streets -- which, hey, may or may not be a bad thing, but let's discuss it before more cameras and satellites go up.

I'm disconcerted about the ways Americans (and our friends in Europe are even farther along than we are) are being step-by-step aclimatized to the idea of sharing information with anyone who asks, and allowing our habits and activities to be tracked by any business or government who seems to care. By ceding our privacy we are taking it on faith that no one will ever abuse what they have on us; human history suggests this is a poor risk to take.

(no subject)

Wow, I just passed the third anniversary of this journal. My life now is so different from what it was like back then, I would barely recognize it: I now live in a different state, work a much different job, and have different partners. Virtually everything I had put together then is gone or transformed.

It's also interesting to see what remains the same: my interests and thoughts and beliefs, and a vague desire to coalesce some of this into a book.

Here's a link to the first entry I ever wrote:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sophiaserpentia/340.html

(no subject)

The game is afoot:

"Am I taking this seriously? But of course," said Charles Meany, Weare's code enforcement officer. "In lieu of the recent Supreme Court decision, I would imagine that some people are pretty much upset. If it is their right to pursue this type of end, then by all means let the process begin."

from Proposal Made to Seize Souter's Property