Not so long ago privacy was an expected right amongst all Americans, but now, by the day it seems like an right that has become relic of the past. The majority of people are willing to give up their right to privacy under an idea that “If I have nothing to hide why do I need privacy”, is astounding. The realization of the loss of privacy came to a peak with the Snowden Revelations, but how did we get here?

Post 9/11 World

People talk about the pre 9/11 having much less oversight and to a point they are actually correct. Before 9/11 many precedents like legal warrantless wiretapping and surveillance were not broken. Until the point that the NSA convinced our country that the best option to safety was to forfeit our rights of privacy, there was still a protocol authorities needed to follow. This all changed when the Patriot Act was quickly signed into law in October 2001, which gave authorities the legal power to pursue anyone they wished, with unlimited legal authority. Even with the Patriot act, some authorities still went beyond what they were legally allowed to do because lack of oversight at the time let them run free.

Inside Washington there were still large pushes for the government to extend surveillance as far as the general public. These pushes for greater surveillance themselves would create a basis, for future politicians and NSA funded projects, to build off. Most people were under the impression that suspected terrorists would be the only focus of the new surveillance, but records in recent years show that even in the beginning, these practices were heavily used on people suspected of all crimes. Those in power were breaking the law and to this day most have not been held accountable.

Mass Hysteria And Fear Amongst The Public

The biggest reason why the government was able to get away with the newly created security laws after 9/11 was due to the mass amount of hysteria and fear that followed 9/11 and other terrorist attacks in the upcoming weeks. People were afraid to fly, afraid to walk their dogs, or just go out to eat at a restaurant. Despite the chance of being killed by a terrorist being smaller than the chance of getting killed by a vending machine, people instantly gave up all their rights as collateral for safety. Fear made people weak and the government took advantage of this fact. Total surveillance over the people they govern has been the governments wet dream for centuries and because of technological advances and the rise of hysteria in the United States it became a possibility.

If total surveillance wasn’t enough, the government also tried to vilify those who spoke out against it. If you stood up for your rights, suddenly you were labeled unpatriotic or anti-American, when the very thing you were standing up for was what America was supposedly based off of. The media was happy to jump in and frame the same arguments the government was making, vilifying whistle blowers and playing up the levels of terrorism in the world so the average viewer would continue to watch. Even today Edward Snowden is considered an enemy of the state by many, partially because of how the media portrayed and continues to portray him. People in the US have decided that their rights are now expendable as long as they can save themselves a little bloodshed.

I say what is the point of living then? Without freedom what kind of lives do we have to protect? With little to no evidence that the amount of mass surveillance has done anything to stop recent terrorist attacks, why are we giving up our freedom for nothing? This is only the beginning as well, even after the realizations that came with Snowden, the NSA has STILL continued to get more government funding and increased the amount of international surveillance that goes on. If we don’t come together and do something quickly, the system that continues to grow will get to a point of no return. In fact we might be at that point already. We have tools like cryptocurrency to fight back , but whether or not it is enough is unknown. I hope our future doesn’t end up like the bleak ones described in novels like 1984, but there is a sizable probability that it will if something isn’t done.

-Calaber24p