Imagine if you will, you and your friends are taking a road trip across the country. You stop off to visit the sights, meet the people and experience what the country has to offer. But unknown to you, you are being followed, but not in the traditional sense. Cameras on the street corner, highway and speckled throughout the town you just passed through are watching you. They silently and obediently capture your movements across the country. The images they capture are sent directly to a database, or to a monitoring station that is monitored 24 hours a day 365 days of the year. This almost-nightmare situation is not something out of George Orwell’s book, 1984, this is the reality of our current technology.
The authorities claim that the technology helps cut down on the drug trade and can help them find a suspect. Those who oppose this technology claim that it is another example of government overreach.
Honestly, I can see both sides. The government should have the tools they need to fight crime. I can see their perspective that it can cut down the amount of time and manpower required to find and capture suspects. They have a valid argument, but are they handling this power in the right way? Is the mass collection of millions of license plates and vehicles OK? I fear that the answer may be no. This seems to hand the authorities a bit too much power. This situation is eerily similar to the Edward Snowden revelations of the mass collection of millions of Americans’ private/public text, Facebook messages and other forms of social media in an attempt to curb terrorism. What possible use can the government have with the daily activities of millions of Americans? I don’t feel comfortable having someone know where I go, where I have been, or exactly what I am doing. I worry that we are standing at the top of a slippery slope. For now, they only use the technology to find, watch and eventually capture wrong- doers. But tomorrow, or years down the road, will they be able to issue you a ticket because ten miles back you forgot to signal the turn you took? Maybe the technology will be used to follow the whereabouts of political activists or certain people who may have a different view than the people in charge. Now of course, this is an extreme view of what could happen if there is not a strong, regulated system of checks and balances set in place. But this, like the Snowden revelations, is a situation that requires our attention and voice. We need to discuss this and ask are we OK with this? Is this something we need in place to capture criminals, and most importantly, what restrictions will be put into place to keep innocent people out of harms way? In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”