Privacy and the presumption of guilt

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 26, 2001]

There is one phrase that has crept into the American vernacular that I wish I could banish from the hearts and minds of my countrymen: "If you're not guilty, then what have you got to hide?" The phrase equates the desire for privacy with the presumption of guilt. It suggests that anyone who wants to keep government's prying eyes away is trying to get away with something evil or criminal.

Today, as we try to flush out the terrorists in our midst, that phrase lingers in the air, providing a ubiquitous justification for invading our privacy. Of course, law enforcement has a point. If the government could know everything about each of us, no terrorist would ever again succeed in harming another innocent person. But would that Gattaca life be heaven or hell?

We have primed the pump with our easy slide into the computer-driven society. Out of convenience, we allow computers to gather information about our movements and choices.

We have gone from a nation of people whose motto was "Don't Tread on Me" to one where citizens don't mind so much being trod upon as long as it doesn't take much time--as long as the sobriety check-point line isn't excessively long, as long as the security guard looking in our purse is quick about it. Any grumbling comes not from the intrusion but the inconvenience. In modern America, time is more valuable than privacy.

Maybe it would be a safer world if our government knew about the assets of everyone. For a time we might gain some insight into the terrorist operations and the rich Saudi businessmen who support them--that is, until they completely bypass the banking system. But what about the 1984-like vulnerabilities that kind of knowledge engenders? Privacy is a necessary condition for independence and individuality. A watched people are a conforming people.

-- Robyn E. Blumner, excerpted from "Privacy Is Just So Suspicious," St. Petersburg Times (FL), 10/21/01.

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