As someone schooled by government lawyers and constitutional historians, the right to citizen privacy has been a hot topic of my professional life. Time and time again, we were told the applicable laws and our obligation to enforce them. “The right to privacy is protected by federal and state constitutions,” they zealously said over and over again.
Yep, that’s not the impression you get when you watch movies and television, but it’s true never-the-less (bring on the disbelieving/angry e-mails). Purposefully violating privacy acts will result in negative consequences. Yes, I’m sure you have endless examples of violations but by-and-large, government agents are told to adhere to the provisions of law.
That’s why many of us are in a form of brain-freeze when it comes to private citizens throwing up every conceivable personal detail on Facebook and other social media sites.
Smoke pot and get drunk and put a photo of all on Facebook. Criminals brag about their dirty deeds and show photos of their loot and gang affiliations. Females living alone proclaim that they are home and inebriated on location-related sites. We seem to be in love with every detail of our lives being made a matter of public record.
Now “The Onion News Network” explains it all (you do understand that this is parody, right?).
But the Onion report makes sense. Facebook is a CIA plot. There had to be a reason as to why hundreds of millions of Americans and people from other countries are throwing caution to the wind and are posting everything under the sun. I’m told by tech-oriented podcasts that today’s youth see full disclosure via social media as a natural way of living; they are confused by the privacy discussion.
I can see constitutional historians and privacy experts wandering the streets with blank looks on their faces. Poor guys. Maybe we can retrain them as social media experts.
See the onion broadcast at http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/.
Best, Len.
