Big Brother, Privacy and Security

Network World has an blog post by Paul McNamara discussing a new political swing towards privacy rights. The story from the Times can be found here. Realistically, these notions of privacy are nothing more than a misnomer. Consider this, politicians criticize the exposure of social security numbers, but they tacitly endorse absurd invasions of our rights in the name of national security. What purpose does it serve to protect use from one another if we, or the Constitution, can't protect us from the government? Instead, lets disregard the current regime in the Hobbesian sense, reclaim the rights given to us by the fathers of our nation, and preserve the value of the Bill of Rights.