"Big Brother is Watching You"
--From a poster in George Orwell's 1984

Those who defend the ability of the political class to peek into the most private affairs of ordinary Americans routinely invoke the mantra, "I have nothing to hide."

Of the few problems with this standard, one is that the political class regularly enlarges the list of outlawed conduct beyond common law injuries to persons or property. Armed with such a list, nosy neighbors can lead to busybody law enforcement and petty prosecutions.

More importantly, by what authority does the political class claim the right to intrude into your life to investigate wrongdoing? And who watches the watchers?

Quoting Privacilla.org, privacy is important for at least two reasons. First, "privacy helps individuals maintain their autonomy and individuality" and "define themselves by exercising power over information about themselves and a free country does not ask people to answer for the choices they make about what information is shared and what is held close" (emphasis added).

Second, privacy carries with it many benefits, such as "safety and peace of mind."

Article I, Section 14 of the Utah Constitution provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized."

And before a judge may issue a warrant to law enforcement officers to search or confiscate you or your property, the person requesting permission to search or confiscate must present evidence of alleged illegal conduct to that judge.

(NOTE: Warranted and warrantless searches and seizures are a complex area of the law. My limited discussion here is not intended to be legal advice. Consult an attorney for advice on the application of the law to your particular situation.)

Utahns rejected the State of Utah's participation in the MATRIX database program. But a substitute -- called the Utah Criminal Justice Information System (UCJIS) -- has already replaced MATRIX. And according to the State of Utah's Bureau of Criminal Identification, in 2004 three-to-four complaints each week of UCJIS database misuse (PDF file) were received.

The financial motivations of database profiteers notwithstanding, the abuse of government databases ranges from attempts to silence political opponents to stalking women.

In his book Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood, author Jim Harper concludes that "[i]dentification should be a risk-reducing strategy in a social system, not a rivet used for pegging humans onto governmental or economic machinery." Harper also proposes a "competitive, responsive identification and credentialing industry" as an alternative to government-issued IDs.

How do liberty lovers protect our privacy and work to be left alone by an increasingly intrusive political class that won't leave us alone?

Get informed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse are two organizations at the forefront of the privacy debate, and are also excellent information resources.

Two books I found amateurish, politically-incorrect, out-of-date, and almost worthless as "how to" guides -- but valuable in terms of teaching broader life lessons about privacy -- are How to Be Invisible, by J.J. Luna, and Hide Your Assets and Disappear, by Edmund J. Pankau.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center is another helpful public interest organization championing civil liberties in the information age, and it offers an extensive list of online privacy tools.

See you later ... or not. ;-)

Yours in liberty,

Rob Latham, Chairman

Libertarian Party of Utah