She's always Listening

The Illusion of Privacy

"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."

4th Amendment U.S. Constitution

In 1870, If I send a Western Union telegram to my lover in New Jersey about how much I love being with her.  Do I have a reasonable expectation of privacy?  Perhaps, but what I want is this message kept private from: my wife, my other mistress, my parents, my relatives and my kids.    There are at least two other people who know my secret.  Polly, the woman who took down my message knows what a said, and the person on the other end of the telegraph line that has to change all those dots and dashes back into my amorous intention and thoughts.   In reality, there are probably a dozen such people who know.  That nicely sealed telegram had to typed and placed in that nice yellow envelope.   I have the epectation that only my lover see my words, but the truth is a dozen people across the country know everything I said and I'm sure they are talking at the local bar after hours.

"Mabel, that short, fat, black guy came in again and told that New Jersey trollop how he want to suck her toes forever."   I don't know for sure if the operator is talking, but would I know she is not?  What I really care about is my list of forementioned people that have a positive image of me.  If they find my secret I am caught in my web of lies.  As long as Polly and her cohort does not mention anything to anyone I care about I am free and clear.

Perhaps the most secure conversation is the one you have in your head.  Second to that perhaps a letter you write, seal and deliver yourself.  After that all bets are off.  (Aside: Who in their right mind send a racin laced letter to the President?  Do you really think he personally opens each piece of mail, out of the hundreds of letter he gets everyday?) Once a thought leaves your head it is not really secure.  You may think it is private but it is really up to the whim of the message service.

The message service gives you the ilusion of privacy because they want to keep you business, but they resevre the right to refuse service or inspect what is being delievery to prevent them being libel, or damage to their infrastructure.   In today's age of information, everything sent through the net: Text message, Email, Voice, and Data gets copied and repeated a dozen times over.   Once sent over the net anything you have is no longer a secret.   So you camplain the government might be privy to all your secret, but you give away all your truly important infomation on Facebook, or your favorite shopping websites.  Your information is packaged and resold to complete strange, so they can target you for mindless products.   All the government is doing is collecting metadata for pattern recognition.  The same kind of metadata that is used to target ads can be used to catch bad guys.

Bottom Line: If you want to keep everything you have a secret, stay off the grid and be a hermit.