Personal Privacy Up for Grabs
In the digital age, privacy and liberty are inseparable. After all, if someone cannot choose who sees their private communications, browsing and spending habits, personal records, etc., can they really be said to be free? As the surveillance state grows, privacy and liberty recede. It is important, then, for those who love liberty — and the privacy which is necessary to maintain it — to use whatever tools are at their disposal to protect themselves from mass surveillance. Of course, the surveillance hawks who are responsible for the growing surveillance state are doing all in their power to keep those tools out of the hands of private citizens.
It has been almost three years since Edward Snowden leaked a trove of information on the unconstitutional mass surveillance by government of nearly all communication methods used by ordinary citizens. Since that time, Americans have learned much about what government agents, unscrupulous corporations, and tech-savvy criminals are doing to spy on everything from private conversations to banking transactions and everything in between. As a result of this ubiquitous surveillance, many have increasingly sought ways to keep their communications, data, and transactions private. As many of them have found, the most effective ways to do this involve encryption.
In the digital age, people do nearly everything on their computers and mobile devices. They talk, text, e-mail, and use video chat. They manage their businesses, transact their banking, shop, and pay their bills. They manage their social media accounts and search for needed — and sometimes frivolous — information. By using the various types of encryption available, they can do all these things with privacy and security. This means that the ability of individuals to access encryption tools is vital to privacy and — by extension — liberty.
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