Reading @alvarombedoya's essay 'Privacy as Civil Right':
"If surveillance is a tool used to threaten the vulnerable, we must understand privacy not just as a civil liberty, but also a civil right: A shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive."
"If surveillance is a tool used to threaten the vulnerable, we must understand privacy not just as a civil liberty, but also a civil right: A shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive."
"No, on May 12, 1950, McCarthy was ascendant. He was growing in prominence and popularity. And other senators would not denounce him. There was “a silence of fear that almost completely paralyzed the Senate,” said one senator."
"Yet it was on that day, that the Senator from New Mexico, Dennis Chávez, stood on the floor of the United States Senate and denounced Joseph McCarthy and
his closest ally, a man named Louis Budenz.
Senator Chávez made clear that dissent was our strength, not a weakness. ..."
his closest ally, a man named Louis Budenz.
Senator Chávez made clear that dissent was our strength, not a weakness. ..."
"And so, Chávez explained, if you curb dissent, if you stifle difference, you don’t just threaten liberty, you threaten “our entire democratic way of life.”
"... two of the Senator’s core commitments: his
defense of individual freedoms and civil liberties; and his belief in equality and promotion of civil rights. I want to talk to you about an idea at their intersection. I want to talk to you about our right to privacy."
defense of individual freedoms and civil liberties; and his belief in equality and promotion of civil rights. I want to talk to you about an idea at their intersection. I want to talk to you about our right to privacy."
"But at its heart, privacy is about human dignity:
Whether the government feels it can invade your dignity, and whether the government feels it has to protect the most sensitive, most intimate facts of your life."
Whether the government feels it can invade your dignity, and whether the government feels it has to protect the most sensitive, most intimate facts of your life."
"And invasions of privacy—the watching and tracking and sharing of data— those invasions do not affect everyone equally. Instead, across our history, you see a color to surveillance. You see patterns."
"Pattern: We watch those who are “less than.” Will you spy on your superior? Or will you spy on the poor man, the person of color, the immigrant, the heretic?
We watch those who are “other.”"
We watch those who are “other.”"
"Pattern: When those “others” organize, mobilize, that watching is redoubled. Surveillance becomes a tool to stop marginalized people from achieving power."
"When we talk about the disparate impact of surveillance, we have to be careful. We must not reinforce the idea that the targets of surveillance are helpless victims."
"Often, in fact, the “other” is being watched precisely because they are fighting back. And sometimes, they win—and that watching fails and is utterly useless."
"It is easy to focus on J. Edgar Hoover, but these patterns predated him and continued long after his passing. Let’s talk about how they continue today."
"In January 2017, when the President barred travel to the United States from several Muslim majority countries, people mobilized en masse against those travel restrictions."
"another section in that same executive order ... called for every traveler to the U.S. to be “vetted” to see if he or she would, quote, “becom[e] a positively contributing member of society” and if they would be able to, quote, “make contributions to the national interest.”
How? "According to the documents, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement wanted to automatically and continuously scan immigrants’ social media—their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts—and flag a minimum, a minimum, of 10,000 of them per year for deportation investigations."
Customs Enforcement wanted to automatically and continuously scan immigrants’ social media—their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts—and flag a minimum, a minimum, of 10,000 of them per year for deportation investigations."
"A coalition of civil rights and privacy organizations was able to stop that system, but unfortunately we have seen no limit to these kinds of abuses."
"In 2013 and 2014, the threat of surveillance to civil rights was not some obscure, abstract thing. It was staring us in
the face. You would expect senators to debate that.
They did not."
the face. You would expect senators to debate that.
They did not."
"... When Congress meets to talk about surveillance,
be it police surveillance and particularly NSA surveillance, it is the exceptional member of Congress who sees this pattern of disparate impact, and who acts to reverse it."
be it police surveillance and particularly NSA surveillance, it is the exceptional member of Congress who sees this pattern of disparate impact, and who acts to reverse it."
"In the last two to three years, this has started to change. In particular, Chairman Elijah Cummings, Chairman Bennie Thompson, Cedric Richmond of the Congressional Black Caucus, and others, are starting to ask questions."
"Questions about racial bias in face recognition technology; about how ICE planned to scan the social media of all immigrants to target deportations; questions underscoring the fact that surveillance isn’t just a threat to liberty—it is a threat to equality also."
"There was a time when it was legal to own people, and illegal for them to run away. There was a time when it was essentially illegal for Black people to march
on the streets of Selma.
on the streets of Selma.
When there is that moral lag, that gap between what is legal
and what is right, privacy is the shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive. It is what allows them to labor “in a private way,” far beyond the
government’s eyes."
and what is right, privacy is the shield that allows the unpopular and persecuted to survive and thrive. It is what allows them to labor “in a private way,” far beyond the
government’s eyes."
Strongly recommend taking the time to read this essay in full:
And see #ColorofSurveillance for further reading on this critical issue.
(Hopefully someone in Australia will start a #ColourofSurveillance course too ... law.georgetown.edu/privacy-techno…)
(Hopefully someone in Australia will start a #ColourofSurveillance course too ... law.georgetown.edu/privacy-techno…)
