Do you recognize this face?

If I hear one more nimrod say...

...that innocent people shouldn't care if the government overreaches into our lives, my head will explode like it was in a microwave and the rest of me will wither away like the Wicked Witch of the East. After writing about facial recognition and the fact that governments use it without our knowledge (You have no idea what's in the cameras being pointed at you!), I heard from those who say things like, "As a non-criminal I don't fear the technology."

If law abiding citizens don't care about civil rights, who should care? Hooligans, scofflaws and thugs? Does anyone really think that THEY will go out of their way to protect civil rights? I sort of doubt it.

If honest people don't need rights and crooks don't deserve them, what the heck are they there for? We are surrounded by cameras, the contents of which can be owned or subpoenaed by government at any time and for any reason. (Thanks to the Patriot Act.) I'm not sure when or where an American is off camera but I AM sure that next year at this time, we will be off camera much less than we are today.

Ten short years ago I was taken aback by all of the cameras that were pointed at me as I walked around Europe. Forever gone was the ability to walk the streets of Paris assured that not a soul on the planet could find me if they wanted to. Now I take those cameras for granted in my own country. They're spreading like kudzu and disappearing into the scenery of our lives just as blatantly. We don't even ask for the APPEARANCE of a respect for privacy. (Turn around and wave at the camera right now. I'm sure if you look, you can find one.)

Some will argue that the Constitution doesn't grant Americans a right to privacy per se and they're right. But privacy was a totally different notion back in the day when we had to take a horse to visit the next door neighbor. But since we can chat with our neighbor's through the window of our indoor outhouse's, things are a bit different today.

I'm not exactly sure what privacy rights are, but I'm pretty sure that most of us expect a bit of privacy in our lives whether we rob banks or run them. And although our Founding Fathers never actually mentioned privacy when writing the Constitution, our government gave women abortion rights based upon that nebulous right. If we can be granted such rights predicated on the sentiment of privacy, one wouldn't be totally unreasonable to assume that we are entitled to a few based on the actual concept itself.

Ya think?