Edward Snowden, an ex-employee of Boos Allen Hamilton in Hawaii has identified himself as the person who disclosed information to The Guardian about NSA surveillance of our phone records and some internet exchanges. The public reaction is all over the map from “ho hum” to “how could something this egregious be allowed?” Various government officials have similarly been wide ranging in their responses. Let’s have a look.
Of course, we have to assume for purposes of our discussion that the information we have seen in the media is factual though we probably don’t have the whole picture at this point. That said, the program, as we know it so far, involves a massive collection of data currently being gathered and maintained by our various phone companies for billing purposes. We’ll forget that those very same phone companies make some of the information available for sale to other commercial businesses as well – nothing personal, just business.
So is the government trampling on your 4th Amendment rights when they data mine information that your phone company already has looking for relationships that are suspicious from a potentially terrorist perspective? This is really the question we need to be discussing and so far it is one of the questions that are remaining on the sidelines.
The 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Clearly, the content of a phone call would off limits without a warrant, but connecting one phone number to another in a database doesn’t seem so clear. Then there is the distinction of the phone company having the data for business purposes and the government obtaining it for analytical use. Just what is the meaning of “unreasonable” is this discussion? We should all be thinking about this question and letting our elected representatives know what our opinion is. We should not be allowing ourselves to be distracted by the media circus surrounding the whereabouts of Edward Snowden.
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