Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide'

[71buickfreak]

When the Federal code is estimated at 17,000 pages, it can be assumed that every single citizen has committed a felony of some kind. Actually, some say as many as 3 felonies from each citizen.

I say that is the bare minimum. Technically, I am committing one right now. I have my prescription pills in a "day of the week" case. It is a felony to separate prescription medicine from the original bottle. Just another side effect of the "war on drugs"

 

[Glocktogo]

Excellent article!

 

[Gideon]

Per day, right?

You make emoticon jests, but actually, it IS 3 per day.

 

[dutchwrangler]

The fact that someone has to write an article to argue the point is testament enough that our citizens deserve whatever pain may be coming in the future. That anyone could believe that it's OK for the government to spy on you "if you have nothing to hide" is beyond stupid.

There is a pandemic of stupid in this nation...

 

[Belthos]

You make emoticon jests, but actually, it IS 3 per day.

That doesn't surprise me.

Have you ever been in a law library? Assuming you could find one with all the laws in current force which is doubtful except perhaps the library of congress, by the time you finished reading the entire legal code, which no one could remember in total and this would take years of your life, enough new laws would have been passed or altered such that you'd be years catching up especially since many regulations of government agencies have the force of law even though they are not actual laws.
Rinse and repeat.

Now the funny part.

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. So you are criminally liable for a vast number of laws that you have no hope of realistically knowing about especially since many environmental laws reference the laws of other nations and change dynamically as those change, which is insane.

I was once told by an officer that if he wanted probable cause when following someone in a vehicle he was virtually guaranteed that within 5 to 10 minutes they'd violate something what would give him just cause to pull them over, no matter how good a driver they were.

 

[Gideon]

 

[Jujen Kai]

 

[LightningCrash]

I was once told by an officer that if he wanted probable cause when following someone in a vehicle he was virtually guaranteed that within 5 to 10 minutes they'd violate something what would give him just cause to pull them over, no matter how good a driver they were.

I'll be glad when we have self driving cars!

 

[John6185]

Once the government gets their foot in the door it's not too long before it's a leg and then they're completely in and nothing is sacred. It is beyond me why any sane person in american politics would want to spy on their fellow americans and not those associated and profiled as potential terrorists. But these are the same politicians who say that veterans, christians, conservatives, gunowners and other unlikely people are terrorists.

 

[LightningCrash]

If you were trying to prevent bombings or politically motivated murders here, who are the most likely people to commit such an act? Should we listen in on those "most likely" groups and listen to their communications to see what they're up to?