Doc Hoff’s #BlogBlogProject | “No Warrant? No Problem.” by Melania Harris
How the US government uses technology to violate the rights of their citizens
As a professor of political communication, I’ve been sharing blogs written by my University of Delaware students for the last decade. This blog was written by Meliana Harris, a University of Delaware graduate (2023) who majored in Political Science and minored in Political Communication. In this blog, submitted in my writing class, “Technology and Politics,” she discusses the complicated and powerful ways that governments can use technology when it comes to Americans’ privacy.
Governments across the globe are using technology to violate and spy on the rights of their citizens. The US looks down upon countries like China and Russia that use technology in invading ways to stalk and punish their citizens.
But, what if the US partakes in the same invasions of privacy using technology? What if our constitutional rights are consistently violated through the use of technology? Take another look at the fourth amendment:
“The 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 Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” — United States Fourth Amendment
The fourth amendment should protect citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures from law enforcement and government entities, however, the intertwining of technology and government has changed the playing field. US government agencies are “obtaining our most private information without warrants — and spending millions of taxpayer dollars to do it.” The U.S. government, based on “legitimate safety concerns,” uses technology to spy on unknowing citizens which is a complete government overreach.
Initially passed for arguably justifiable reasons, the U.S. Patriot Act was approved after 9/11 in an attempt to better protect citizens and prevent an atrocity like that from ever occurring again. However, many provisions have been added and “expand law enforcement authority to conduct investigations, expand the permitted scope of those investigations, and remove privacy protections previously written into federal law.” The misuse of laws like the Patriot Act and the increase of the government’s ability to spy not only violates our constitutional rights as citizens but is used against citizens and is a dangerous path to keep moving forward on. This is a serious threat to our liberties and needs to be addressed.
Technology already is, and will most likely be, a vital part of every U.S. citizen’s life, and they should have the right to use it without their privacy being invaded. We are subjected to the power of technology whether we like it or not. Jamie Susskind, in his book “Future Politics,” discusses two different ways in which we become engaged with the power of technology. The first is how we engage with technology, specifically when we purposefully use technology for some reason — whether that be posting on social media or using digital payment like Venmo. The second is our role as passive subjects when we are unconsciously being subjected to the power of technology. He uses the example of how “surveillance cameras track our progress down a street” (p. 153) to explain how we play the role of passive subjects every day without knowing.
The problem is that the U.S. government has taken advantage of our role as passive subjects in this technologically advanced world. Zeynep Tufekci’s New York Times piece discusses the looming threat of privacy invasion occurring in America which, she describes as “a terrifying rabbit hole of privacy abuse.” She explains that the government is secretly buying data from companies and using it to track citizens. Those companies are making private data public and the government is taking full advantage of this to their benefit.
Take the example of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, as Tufekci describes the aftermath of the Supreme Court striking down the right to abortion. As a result, many women began to delete period-tracking apps so that these data could not be bought and sold. Why? Because state government agencies and anti-abortion groups could use this data to harm and punish women. The fact that private data on the internet can be bought and sold — and potentially used for harm by the U.S. government or other government agencies — should frighten every American.
While the intertwining of government and technology might seem like an incredibly complicated topic to solve, it’s really not. The solution is simple: we need to take back our privacy, as Tufekci says. The technological world rapidly expands and will continue to become more and more complicated. This is why it is essential we defend our liberties and ensure that private companies and the U.S. government are not taking advantage of us.
There also need to be more clear regulations about how the government and companies can use data, and there needs to be a certain point beyond which governments cannot reach. This can mean a variety of solutions, like the presentation of a warrant to access data, the limitation to what private data the government can buy, and the restriction of provisions written in the Patriot Act. It is also essential that the government provides much more transparency to its citizens about the data they use and how they use it. Our constitutional rights are being violated, and we must ensure that we work towards protecting them.
This blog was written by University of Delaware graduate Meliana Harris for a class assignment in my Spring 2023 class, “Digital Technology and Politics.”
