If you believe it is and you would act
to curb even this level of our government overstepping the limits
that our Constitution defines in the protection of our individual
rights particularly that of privacy then your interpretation of the
Constitution is rather strict and conservative. There is nothing
wrong with your opinion but I would ask if you truly think this must
be stopped and would never relent on your conviction? Is having,
using and even acting upon the information all that is required to be
invading your personal space? Is nothing more required?
If your are of the opinion that the
government hasn't exceeded its authority and intruded upon your
person then I would say we will have to look further for yet another
dimension of our existence and world for when either your privacy
surfaces or where it surfaces. I don't mean to say that this is a
simple question or that the range or extent of information about you
might not make a difference. So the where dimension may possess a
point at which the government crosses the line, and I would argue
that there is such a point beyond which your privacy is being
violated. But this is the very issue that we and the government must
contend over where that line is drawn.
Let's consider the when dimension from
a moment. When may actually present more than one facet to the
complexity of the question. 'When' could be in terms of when the
government seeks to examine information specifically about you; are
they doing it constantly but with no objective except to wait until
they see something that triggers their interest, or 'when' could be
conditions where you engage in something that causes afterwords
causes the government to determine that you have done 'something of
interest' and now the government seeks out your information and data
to see what else they can find. 'When' could also be an event that
has no connection with you directly and the government is not
actively aware of you. You are not a person who exists from their
perception of the world. However, once an external event/action has
occurred the government searches the records that contain information
about you. Are any of these invasions of your privacy? Again there is
an attribute of the time dimension that will present a point where
the government would pass from not infringing to violating. But I
don't think that is starts at “any time”; there is more required.
The simple deciding factor is not obviously defined and determined
because by itself the one dimension is incomplete and inadequate.
There once again must be more.
To briefly jump-back to the beginning,
you did recognize that the information that the government was
recording and monitoring: name, address and phone number are a phone
book? Something which exists and is held and accessed by many
entities. Phone companies keep it; utilities, state and local
governments, various businesses come close to having access to such
information (and much, much more). Libraries and the internet provide
such information and allow people to monitor and research a variety
of things using this data as basic data elements. So where did your
privacy start, and when did it reach the point of being private?
