Protection or Privacy

Sherluna Vien

ASA2

Blog #6

Protection or Privacy

The reading “CRS Report for Congress - the USA Patriot Act: A Sketch” talks about the increase in the invasion of privacy in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack. After the 9/11 attack, Americans were scared and afraid that another attack like this would happen again. In response to this, many were willing to give up their privacy in order for protection. At some points, I think that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be afraid to reveal anything. But besides that point, I still believe it is in our right and freedom to have privacy and that this act gives too much power to law enforcements. Additionally, we are not sure if the act is being used to actually look over only terrorists. I start to wonder if this act can also go against people who are trying to have rallies and civil rights movements similar to what happen to Joshua Wong from the Umbrella Movement. In the reading, it says that law enforcements could permits “tracking of phone calls, treat stored voice mail like stored e-mail, and permits authorities to intercept communications to and from a trespasser within a computer system.” I believe we should be critical of this act and not allow only one situation to take away our privacy rights forever. We need to re-think about how powerful this act is and question whether this act actually is protecting us from domestic and international terrorists.

My question is how has this USA Patriot Act been misused in the past? Is it okay to exchange our freedom for protection?