If someone were to ask me how much I value privacy, I might not have an answer right away.
The truth is, we as Americans, share so much of our lives voluntarily.
Through social media, photos and blogs, we invite people, fellow Americans and total strangers, into our lives.
I’ll admit that as I get older, I find that I’m more private and post less on my social media accounts.
Not all of my followers need to know every aspect of my life. We really should take our privacy more seriously.
Unfortunately, we as Americans cannot assume that something as simple as a phone call can be kept private.
The same can be said for our personal legal documents.
There has been continuing coverage of the National Security Agency privacy situation since it was discovered that many rules and regulations had been broken.
Edward Snowden, a former NSA employee, intentionally shared secret United States and British government media footage with the press.
Snowden fled the country for Hong Kong and Russia when his actions went public.
Prior to his work with the NSA, Snowden enlisted in the Army Reserve.
Although he did not complete any training and was discharged, he expressed his desire to fight in Iraq.
It’s sad to think that someone who once wanted to fight for our country, would diminish its confidentiality.
Phone calls have been recorded, technologies have been hacked.
Americans have lost a sense of privacy, and in recent months, it’s been discovered that privacy violations have occurred frequently for years.
I understand that some phone calls are recorded for legal purposes.
But in most cases, I feel like all parties are clearly aware of when their conversations are being recorded.
They know ahead of time that such conversations may be heard by a third or perhaps even a fourth party.
According to an audit obtained by the Washington Post, the NSA has been involved with over 2,000 incidents in 2012 alone regarding legally-protected information.
Of course, the number of incidents could have been greater, but such a figure is still unsettling.
When I think back to all of the phone calls I’ve made over the past year, all of the documents that I’ve filled out, I know that I was under the impression that my information would be kept private.
I believed that these documents would be kept private and only accessible to the companies and/or organizations requiring me to share my information.
I’m glad that the NSA’s actions have been brought to light and that developments regarding this situation are continuing to be made available to the public.
In response to the coverage, the NSA has expressed its attempts to identify issues at “the earliest possible moment.”
While I respect the honesty and communication of the NSA, I don’t feel like its explanation and/or statement takes responsibility for the information that it allowed to be made public.
Americans shouldn’t be told that their information will be protected and will not be shared if, in fact, the opposite occurs.
