The scaredy-trolls who support Flock spyware (and similar spyware from other companies) like to claim that there is no right to privacy in the Constitution.
Perhaps they forgot the Ninth Amendment.
Whether that’s the case or not, they are making two big errors.
Their first mistake: Unless the Constitution explicitly allows government to do a thing, it is prohibited for government to do that thing. They get this backwards, pretending that government is allowed to do anything not explicitly prohibited and that only those things specifically listed are your rights. This is where the Ninth Amendment comes in. They ignore that one.
The second huge mistake they make is that even if the Constitution explicitly allows government to do something which violates life, liberty, or property, it’s still wrong for government to do that, and the Constitution is wrong for allowing it. That is a counterfeit “law”; a rule with no ethical foundation whatsoever.
If the Supreme Court takes government's side, it is wrong.
If someone insists that you obey such a rule until it gets changed, just like you should turn in runaway slaves until it's no longer "the law" to do so, you know they are on the wrong side. They are the bad guy here.
This is how you can tell such a person is a government supremacist, and probably a Statanist.
You have the right to privacy because that right doesn't violate anyone else's right to life, liberty, or privacy in any way. That's the bottom line, not the opinions of political criminals who want to spy on you to find (or invent) a "crime" to use against you.
Would you care to subscribe or donate?
Privacy is an effect that rights tend to produce, and a good one. And the specific rights the Constitution claims to protect, if those bans on government actions were observed, would do a pretty good job of protecting it.
ReplyDeleteBut there is no "right" to forbid other people from seeing, hearing, or knowing this or that about someone as such. If I violate someone's rights to find out about that thing, I violated their rights whether I found it out or not. If I found it out without otherwise violating their rights, me finding it out didn't violate their rights.
That's the difference between government doing a thing and non-government individuals doing a thing. And since the spyware cameras wouldn't even be doing their thing without government paying them to do it, they count as government.
DeleteWith the ALPRs, there are multiple interfaces of illegitimate government action. Government pays (with stolen money) for the cameras and the data, and government gathers and uses the data when it has no legitimate authority to do so even under the incredibly lax conditions set by the Constitution.
DeleteCould anything similar exist in the private sector? Suppose I develop or buy a camera and build a database that can use facial recognition, etc. (not government license plates) to identify people who enter/leave a particular store. Then I target those people for advertising of the kinds of things sold at that store.
That would be creepy and annoying, but it wouldn't violate anyone's rights if I didn't steal the camera, if I rented the location where it was mounted, etc. There is no right to not have me notice -- with or without technological assistance -- that you shop at Bob's Sporting Goods. Taking a photo of a location that you happen to be in doesn't violate your rights unless I break into your house to do it, in which case the breaking in, not the photography, would be the rights violation.
Kent, your fourth para says it all: even by the low standard of the Constitution, government is empowered to do only the things listed. Everything else is forbidden.
ReplyDeleteFor good measure, Amendment Four requires the testimony of a sworn witness to apparent wrongdoing, before any government search is allowed. Flock cameras are fishing nets.
But as we know, government doesn't care a fig for such paper restrictions.
If someone were to wreck a camera, he could be charged with destroying government property. Never mind that it was bought with stolen money and therefore does not qualify as property (hence, ''government property" is an oxymoron) the judge will be deaf to such irrefutable reasoning.
Even so, some might run that risk. Maybe someone will design a stick or pole, able to hold a spray can at one end, whose button can be depressed using a trigger at the other. Camera lenses do not work well when covered with black paint.
My mind is busy trying to come up with a good solution to this problem. Good, as in, no martyrs.
Delete1rst clause of the 4th amendment reads... "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..."
ReplyDeleteGovernment ignores that, as it ignores all limits on its own lust for power. Or "reinterprets" it to the point where it means nothing. Always in government's favor.
Delete