I write this blog with the question, If the goverment works for the people and use founding from taxes and other sorts, then why should I or any American have to fear everyday that something might happen to their family?
Contrary to the passive, personalizing and self-perpetuating desire driven Americans, the average American is scared of his or her privacy being used against them. Today I will be talking about what privacy is, also what the Patriot Act is and how it affects us, how using collected information can benefit our everyday lives compared to all the crime we face today. Then I will finish with sharing ideas and solutions. In fact did you know our information allows marketers to now pinpoint exactly where you are and what kind of situation you find yourself in, also how you think or feel. This type of data collecting is not perfect, but it is getting a lot better as our technology and acceptance grows. As for the laws, The Wall Street Journal series states “how a company can get around privacy standards, using vague promises of security.” My question for you is why are we openly giving up information to companies and not the government?
What is privacy? Well, According to a Google search Privacy is:
(The state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people.) Also the businessdictionary.com states, (In specific, privacy may be divided into four categories)
Such as:
Physical: restriction on others to experience a person or situation through one or more of the human senses;
Physical: restriction on others to experience a person or situation through one or more of the human senses;
Informational: restriction on searching for or revealing facts that are unknown or unknowable to others;
Decisional: restriction on interfering in decisions that are exclusive to an entity;
Dispositional: restriction on attempts to know an individual’s state of mind.
The Patriot Act has many components that the majority of Americans do not understand.
If companies are benefiting from collecting your information and the government is using it to solve crimes then why are we so up in arms about protecting our privacy and opposing the Patriot Act? The Patriot Act law was signed and passed October 26, 2001 by President George, W. Bush in an attempt to secure America from experiencing another tragic event such as September 11th, 2001. The Department of Justice states on their website: justice.gov “The government’s success in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland since September 11, 2001, would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, without the USA Patriot Act. The authorities Congress provided have substantially enhanced our ability to prevent, investigate, and prosecute acts of terror.” According to Mozilla “The PATRIOT Act is a very large piece of legislation (it’s more than 340 pages), which Congress passed just three days after it was introduced. However, Congress did have the foresight to build in expiration dates, or “sunset clauses,” that require lawmakers to reauthorize parts of this legislation every few years. Three of the PATRIOT Act’s many sections, including Section 215, will expire on June 1, 2015 providing a unique opportunity to call for reform.” They also state “We believe keeping us safe shouldn’t have to cost us our privacy. That’s why we’re pushing for Congress to significantly reform these parts of the PATRIOT Act.” I believe Mozilla’s view is wrong, and this is why. Today the United States Government monitors whoever you are calling, for how long, and at what times. Different government agencies can do this even if you are not under suspicion of any wrongdoing. With knowing this I would have to ask, if the government is already doing this then why does it matter anymore? The cameras are already on every street corner, and there are programs tracking your internet traffic right now (in fact theres programs tracking as I write this and as your read this). I find that we have become very complacent about this and the growing technology behind it. The younger generations are growing up knowing nothing different and because of this people become more careless, complacent and more acceptable. There are more people sharing and giving up personal information to social networking and matchmaking companies, and they are turning around using your information to market to your specific interest. Is your interest as a human in the 21st century not to thrive and prosper? Then you would understand that the world is too big for one person to control evil from prevailing. This idea only comes with simple understanding that it is not just some government agency but your brothers, mothers, fathers, sisters, aunts that are hard at work to protect you. No one would have to worry about a government agency using information for personal gain if everyone is kept to the same standards. It is close to impossible to stop people from committing a crime because there are almost no preventative actions and only post consequences. The collection of all this information and growing technology now allows law enforcement to show the face under the mask because they can take all the results and map out a beginning and end to crimes. Now with this information, would it be wrong to say that humans no matter how different have a lot of similarities when it comes to acting in contrary ways?. I believe it is knowledge that gives us the answers and keys to acting in positive ways (thinking before acting). My question is with the collection of this information would it be possible to come now to a point in history where we have the tools to predict and prevent a crime from being committed? As an example dating sites with research have come up with an algorithm to predict the success of a relationship, and it also helps predict a perfect match. Then we should allow the government to collect and use information as such to predict whether or not someone was going to commit a crime. We have become a society where there is inequality between class when it comes to holding people accountable for crimes they might have committed whether they are white collar, street gangster or the average lawbreaker everyone should be responsible. We should all be kept answerable to a system that is not bias and does not care about anything other than the law you are breaking. A simple solution is information to be collected on every aspect of life that is available, for an example all vehicles should be tracked and backed by a law stating you must have this device in your vehicle. Then the department of transportation and the car manufacturers can have a program that whenever someone is traveling on the road, the vehicle is monitoring if the seat belt is being used and if not a situation or ticket can then issued to the owner of the vehicle. This would also be the solution to people speeding and I believe that a system like this can not only issue a ticket to someone that might have been spending but if they are driving whether recklessly out in the back woods or middle of the night on the streets of a city, the authorities then can respond to the incident that might have otherwise never been reported. The NHTSA states “Highway deaths claim more than 30,000 lives each year and while we’ve made substantial progress over the past 50 years, it’s clear that we have much more work to do,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “As we look to the future, we must focus our efforts to tackle persistent and emerging issues that threaten the safety of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians across the nation.” My next question is can we trust ourselves to make the right decisions when it comes to using the authorities to resolve an issue?. Too many times there has been someone committing a crime and a lot of people just stand on the sidelines doing nothing, why not have a system where there is no grey area and you cannot not lie or deny your actions. I believe this would help with all the unnecessary reports to police giving them more time to resolve real issues. To anyone opposing a government agency from collecting and snooping into everyone’s personal information. What is it that the average American are afraid of when it comes to our information being collected?. We should be asking ourselves what are we hiding that could possibly jeopardize our freedom? If anyone has an answer for these then maybe it’s time for Americans to take responsibilities for their actions or stand up and participate within in politics to change laws. Is it that we are afraid of the government knowing that people watch excessive porn? Or the fact that girlfriends/boyfriends are residing with each other without marriage? Maybe you don’t want no one know you do shady business?. Or is it that you find yourself speeding down a highway once in a while? I ask these questions because there are some things that the government can care less about. Who are they to judge us? Right? The government’s intentions should only be to find and prevent any criminal acts. As long as you obey the laws no matter what you are (Rich, poor, white, black, Christian, or Catholic) then you would have no fear or worries of your information being taken advantage of. If you are unable to reach your deadlines, appointments, or business meetings as an example; then society needs to rethink its participation in its own government. Actually start voting, go to city meetings and understand the government can not accommodate for people that do not voice their concerns, opinions, or ideas. The Washington Post states in an article talking about “New surveillance technology that can track everyone in an area for several hours at a time” “We get a little frustrated when people get so worried about us seeing them in their backyard,” McNutt said in his operation center, where the walls are adorned with 120-inch monitors, each showing a different grainy urban scene collected from above. “We can’t even see what they are doing in their backyard. And, by the way, we don’t care.”
All though we have free will; today’s world there is always a trail left behind and points where someone makes the choice to commit a crime. Having someone knock on your door to give you a new chance to preventing you from doing something or developing a program where we have different emergency responder teams, This way if someone finds themselves in a situation people with the right training and experience can respond. I do not believe people intentionally kill or commit a crime; it’s a mixture of lack of education/information, lack of support and lack of options. So imagine a system that can prevent accidents, murders, bribery, all criminal acts by keeping us in line. Agencies then can send crews out to your homes to not only check on people but to offer options and these options may vary from support, to rehab, to a sit down and talk things out that you might be experiencing. As Benjamin Franklin said “Those, who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” I would like to challenge people to this idea because we need to ask ourselves what is having freedom of privacy? Is it the freedom to make wrong choices behind closed doors that might jeopardize someone else life? Is it the freedom to have secrets and lies where people are taking advantage of the less intelligent? Is it having the chance to use technology to stalk, kidnap, rape and then kill someone? If you ask me freedom is the opportunity to do the right thing and obeying the laws of the land, no law should prevent someone from reaching liberty and freedom should not keep people from obeying the laws.
All though we have free will; today’s world there is always a trail left behind and points where someone makes the choice to commit a crime. Having someone knock on your door to give you a new chance to preventing you from doing something or developing a program where we have different emergency responder teams, This way if someone finds themselves in a situation people with the right training and experience can respond. I do not believe people intentionally kill or commit a crime; it’s a mixture of lack of education/information, lack of support and lack of options. So imagine a system that can prevent accidents, murders, bribery, all criminal acts by keeping us in line. Agencies then can send crews out to your homes to not only check on people but to offer options and these options may vary from support, to rehab, to a sit down and talk things out that you might be experiencing. As Benjamin Franklin said “Those, who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” I would like to challenge people to this idea because we need to ask ourselves what is having freedom of privacy? Is it the freedom to make wrong choices behind closed doors that might jeopardize someone else life? Is it the freedom to have secrets and lies where people are taking advantage of the less intelligent? Is it having the chance to use technology to stalk, kidnap, rape and then kill someone? If you ask me freedom is the opportunity to do the right thing and obeying the laws of the land, no law should prevent someone from reaching liberty and freedom should not keep people from obeying the laws.
DO WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE SIN AND EVIL INTENTIONS ARE MORE IMPORTANT FOR SURVIVAL THAN TO LOVE, RESPECT, HONOR, AND DUTY.
www.businessdictionary.com
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