Privacy in the United States
Amendment IV – The Constitution of the United States:
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.
As you well know, the above amendment is vital to the preservation of our liberty. It is generally assumed that the Fourth Amendment intends that no Government or Government Agency in the United States can be allowed to violate the “Letter”, or the “Intent” of this law. However, the amendment does not specifically limit violators of “The Peoples’ Right of Privacy” to Government … In fact it does not even mention Government.
I suggest to you that no person or entity has a license to violate the 4th Amendment. The business model of many private companies in today’s culture rely on, what I consider, effectively violating personal privacy rights.
Historical Background
Some years (decades) ago when financial institutions started sharing the personal information of their customers with other so called business partners many people became outraged and demanded laws to prohibit this practice. The laws passed were “backwards” in an attempt be able to tell the People that they took the action that they demanded, however, be ineffective in order to satisfy the financial institutions. Typically, per these laws, you could send a letter to each and every company that you did business with requesting your information not to be shared. As a practical matter this is completely ineffective for numerous reasons including that a company could claim that they did not receive your letter and if you missed even one company (out of many) then your info ends up out there.
Today
I contend that in order for a “reasonable person” to live in today’s environment one needs to earn a living, process their earnings and savings through financial institutions, purchase goods & services, and use the internet to facilitate the like, as well as for personal communications.
Virtually every business that you deal with collects as much personal information that they can get (with or without your knowledge or consent). Even your vehicle collects your locations, stops, and in some cases cell phone calls made. Then this information can be sold to third parties. Internet companies require you to agree to their “terms of service” which include their “right” to collect, use, and sell your personal information as they see fit.
Most of these companies maintain that once they obtain your information, then, from that point on, it is their property to use for what ever purpose they desire.
Contract law maintains that in order for a contract to be valid it must include:
The object of contract is lawful
There is reasonable equity between parties
Consent is made freely (Not under duress)
In my opinion these “user agreements” are not valid contracts because in many cases people who click on “agree” are doing so under duress (they need to use these services to live); and further there is not reasonable equity between parties.
I further contend that in violation of the Fourth Amendment many companies are electronically searching and seizing your property (personal information) without due process for no other reason than maximizing their profit.
Although I am in favor of the smallest and least intrusive government as possible we now need privacy laws passed that strictly prohibit any person or entity from collecting any personal information that is not absolutely necessary to a specific transaction and that such information may not be given or sold to third parties.
Also the current “backwards” laws need to be revised to state that no company can share or sell any personal information without having a written and signed letter, in hand, from that individual granting such permission and further may not require such permission from anyone as a condition of doing business.
Future
Free/Fair Market Capitalism and Individualism has served our country very well. We became the greatest economic power in the history of the World while maintaining our hard fought freedom. However, what I have written above is just one of many issues which I believe jeopardizes our economic strength and freedom going forward.
Capitalism has been steadily morphing into Corporatism and our once Free/Fair Markets are now being controlled and manipulated by an unholy alliance of governments & monopolistic multinational corporations. Individualism, in recent times, is being considered a sin against the ever expanding secular society. Small businesses and individuals who do not go along with the program and “Drink the Kool-Aid” are on the slate to be “canceled” along with much of our history and even our Founding Fathers.
A typical “conservative” thinking person would suggest that what is needed to fix the problem is more competition. I agree with this suggestion in principle, however, as a practical matter, at this point in time, attempting to compete with the government/industrial complex will likely result in you being squashed like a bug. Your demise will then be reported by both “Mass” & “Social” media as another assault on the new society rightfully being defeated.
We are on a high speed highway … The road sign coming into vision has the words “Plutocracy Ahead” … Do we continue on, or do we take the very next junction “American Way” returning to Freedom & Liberty? There is still time, but not much!