Monday, February 23, 2015

Dr. Stephen L. Carter — What Will Obama Give You for Your Privacy?




Stephen L. Carter, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of law at Yale University, where he teaches courses on contracts, professional responsibility, ethics in literature, intellectual property, and the law and ethics of war.

Suppose that the government were to ask each of us to wear an unremovable bracelet that allowed our location to be determined in an emergency. The responsible agencies would promise never to use this authority in the absence of a court order. True, there would be a potential threat to privacy, but supporters would contend that the trade-off was worthwhile: Terrorists and child kidnappers would be easier to catch.


I’m not sure how much you would like this suggestion. I for one would fight it tooth and nail.

Although we’re certainly nowhere near that point, there is a bit of the same flavor in the government’s pressure on smartphone makers not to use encryption so strong that law enforcement agencies can’t break it when they have to.

Read complete article here