New York, NY—The failed Times Square car bombing attempt by Faisal Shahzad revealed the total lack of privacy Americans have.
Cellular telephones, even the throw away ones you can purchase without showing ID can be traced. Surveillance video will reveal nearly every purchase made by this suspect and every other American. The credit and debit card trail you leave behind is much more reliable than the bread crumbs dropped by Hansel & Gretel for that famed fairy tale.
During serious criminal investigations police routinely seize cell phones, computers, digital cameras along with your credit cards and those little key chain tags from the sores where you shop. All of these items will reveal your every movement.
As criminal defense investigator these are also wonderful tools to prove alibis of innocent suspects accused of crimes. Of course not being assigned to an investigation early enough will cause exculpatory evidence particularly surveillance video to vanish since the hard drives record over needed defense evidence.
The ominous reality is clear that since this country was founds more than 230 years ago legislative bodies have criminalized nearly everything but life itself. The laws are almost never repealed and government can always find a way to put you or family members on the wrong side of the law.
We have simply accepted every privacy intrusion imaginable without question as bar codes, magnetic strips and RFID tags, are added on things we’re now required to carry every day. Big Brother has come to us in ways that even George Orwell could never envision.
With your Internet traveling and e-mail, the likes of Yahoo and Google know what and who you like or hate. Police with subpoenas can learn which people you know can be interrogated about you and your habits.
Data warehouses have collected massive information on every aspect of our lives. Your grocery and drug store shopping cards alone can reveal volumes about your life.
Of course there are those of you that have no problem with government accessing this information you can’t lose sight that the information is in private hands available to the highest bidder.
I did not write this story to make you comfortable. This is not a good world folks and if we wanted to protect ourselves it would be a nearly impossible proposition..
How wonderful it will be when we are all forced to have a national identity card! A few keystrokes by some government worker and all this data will come together in a single file. Now that’s power!
Keep sending more money to Washington since our bureaucrats need it to exploit all the data goldmines they can.
If you are afraid of terrorists such as Faisal Shahzad, our own government will make that lad look like a choir boy. What kind of world are we leaving for our children?
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