Right To Privacy

Strict Constitutionalism, interpreting the United States Constitution strictly within its initial understanding and context, is a judicial philosophy has increasingly held sway in the United States and is reflected in the judges appointed by both Presidents Bush. This week the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in a case which not only demonstrates that the shortcomings of that philosophical position but the outcome will have major significance to the nature and future of a person’s right of privacy.

The police secretly installed a GPS tracking device to the car of Jones, a man they suspected to be a major drug dealer. For a month from afar and well out of sight the police tracked Jones’ movement. His vehicle became a 24/7 surveillance tool of the police. The police did not need to task teams to watch and follow Jones. After a month the tracking led the police to a large cache of cocaine.

In United States v. Jones, Jones is arguing that the government improperly and without a court issued warrant invaded his privacy. The government argues that they did not need to have a warrant as that provision only pertained to tapping telephone calls, and besides Jones was moving along public roads and functioning various other tasks in other public space.

On the surface the government’s argument seems logical. Using such devices frees up resources and saves the tax payers money. The government no longer needs to task a dozen or more officers to follow suspects in cars and wait outside buildings watching for a suspect to leave. Now the police can place a device on a car, allow a computer to track movements and have one officer review in minutes a day’s worth of movements. One officer could monitor hundreds of people’s movements, instead of it taking many to monitor one.

Forty something years ago when the Supreme Court ruled that wiretaps were required, similar arguments to those of today’s government were used. Today’s Court is facing the ramifications of modern technology and processes that were never dreamed as possible by the original authors of the Constitution. Holding to a strict reading and holding to original context would do a disservice to the Constitution and common sense. The Court was established for the purpose of not as a bulwark against change but as a vehicle to make rulings in light of fundamental principles within an evolving social, political and technological context.

Privacy is a fundamental principle. At issue is whether technology like cell phones, GPS devices, computers, online monitoring, can be used to negate a person’s privacy within a free society. The Court has long held that it is a reasonable expectation for a person to hold that their telephone conversation is private. In its telephone wiretap ruling the Court ruled that as a check against widespread and unwarranted listening to our private conversations. Once again the Court is dealing with these issues. If the Court accepts the government’s position, there is nothing to prevent the government from using our cell phones, OnStar, car engine monitoring devices, GPS devices and other current and future technologies to track our movements second by second. If the government wins, employers and others could then do the same. In short, the Fourth Amendment’s right of privacy will become minimal.

Palm Treo to Blackberry Curve

After having an unpleasant and frustrating time with a Palm Treo, I am delighted to go back to having a BlackBerry. I love my new Curve 8350i. Shortly after starting to use the Treo I discovered that when talking to someone on the phone other screens would pop-up. These pop-up would happen after I dialed and to the screens would have to be closed in order to go to the speaker, or turn off the speaker.

Frequently listeners kept getting annoying feedback. To cut the feedback I would have to go to speaker and then turn the speaker off. This was an annoyance to say the least to all parties.

At first I liked the Treo’s email system and all was well for four months, except for the occasional few hours where they system would go down. About the four month point the Treo’s email system started to going down more frequently, up to two to three days at a time. The growing frequency became frustrating.

About the seventh month the software on my Treo started freeze. At first taking out the battery and resetting the Treo was all that was necessary to get the system going again. Weeks later, the only way to the email system going again was to delete the software and reinstall it. Sometimes the installation would take fifteen minutes but at other times it would not take multiple efforts. The frequency in the Treo crashing increased to the point where it was happening two to four times a week. The frustrating part was that until the software was installed again, my calendar and phone book were blank.

Others started to experience the same problems. It was nice not to be alone. Three weeks ago DHQ moved all eleven of us on the Treo to the BlackBerry Curve.

I really like the ease and feel of the Curve. It is sleek and I like the feel of the keypad and the roller ball. I like the idea of being able to download a Powerpoint or slideshow to the Curve and then hook it up to a projector for group showing. It also has a voice dialing feature that I have yet to activate but may get around to doing so in the coming weeks.

The curve also has a GPS feature that while I would not see it replacing my GPS, it is a nice feature for if I was walking along the street and needed some help. I like the ease of going on the net using the Curve and its bedside wake-up alarm feature. One issue I do have with it is that it does not seem to have the capability to assign specific ringtones for specific people.

Another feature I will not like use is that one can download the mp3 files. I may eventually install a dozen or so files but I have my ipod with an extensive list. One feature that I will be using is the recorder that allows me to record notes to myself while out of the office…a nice feature considering that we often think about something at one point in the day and forget it later.

Overall, I am very pleased with the Curve.