lit review

Protection of privacy is one of the corner stones to United States that differentiates it from similar first world countries. When polled 79% of American citizens said they cared immensely about this civil liberties that protect themselves against the government (Kasper and Davis and Silver). Over the course of the 20th century there were many legal cases regarding the right to privacy. In 1927 Omstead v U.S. deemed that “every unjustifiable intrusion by the government…[is] a violation of the 4th amendment” (Kasper). In 1973 the famous court case of Roe v Wade over abortion ruled that it was the woman’s choice whether or not to get an abortion by showing that a law against what someone can do to their body is an intrusion of privacy (Kasper). As technology advanced so did the breadth that privacy covered. In the case of Katz v U.S. (1967) the Supreme Court decided that technologically enhanced eavesdropping is considered an unreasonable search (Kasper). During the 1990s we saw our first major resurgence of interest in information privacy, this is claimed to have arose from declining trust in the government (Milberg, Smith and Burke). This uproar was in response to major corporations openly storing masses of personal information in order to improve the efficiency of marketing (Milberg, Smith and Burke, and Culnan and Armstrong). When the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the second monumental change in privacy occurred. After the attacks, Davis and Silver, studied how Americans view on privacy and security changed and they attempted to generalize that change which was similar across social-economic and racial backgrounds. They found that with a greater sense of threat, the lower support for civil liberties, and that people are willing to trade civil liberties for enhanced security (Davis and Silver). With this data the two researchers were able to make the claim that support of civil liberties is context specific, for example, in other words, Americans were ok with giving up their civil liberties in order to feel safe for terrorists. (Davis and Silver). This information is interestingly very different from that obtained by a yearlong poll conducted by the National Science Foundation. They found that 92% of Americans opposed government investigation of nonviolent protestors, 82% opposed government use of racial profiling, and 77% opposed warrantless searches of suspected terrorists; this is consistent with the importance Americans associate with privacy (Kasper). This information that Kasper gathered conflicts that of Hassrick and Schneider. They looked at the effects of surveillance by parents on teachers. They found that parents have no problem with compromising the privacy of others in this case a teacher. They study showed that one will compromise the privacy of another in order to gain some monetary or social gain, however, when they themselves are exposed they object (Hassrick and Schneider, and Culnan and Armstrong and Kasper). In Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother one of the most prevalent themes was that of the balance between personal and national security and privacy. Doctorow argues that governmental control can be too powerful and can interfere with rights to privacy. Marcus and his friends attempt to stop this by exploiting the DHS. The government in this case has free-reign to survey whatever they please because of the recent terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge and BART. Doctorow believes that personal privacy should never be trumped by national security, that the right to privacy never is disregarded no matter the situation. I agree with Doctorow in the sense that a government can and does become to powerful sometimes. However, I disagree with him in the sense that after a major disaster I think the government needs to crack down in order to protect their country, after all, their duty is to serve the citizens. It is their job to research and monitor all those who act with suspicious. My original research contribution to the knowledge pool of privacy is my original analysis of Doctorow’s stance on privacy through the examination of his book Little Brother.