Privacy and Technology - New York Times

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Credit Pieter Van Eenoge

To the Editor:

Re “Cops, Cellphones and Privacy” (editorial, Nov. 27): Clearly, the Fourth Amendment must be reinterpreted in light of new technologies, but that reinterpretation must be based on legal principles, not on emotional responses to the technology’s power, and it must include a clear distinction between public and private.

If it is legal to surveil and follow a suspect in person using a police officer and a car, it should be legal to do the same thing with electronic devices. Our understanding of constitutionality should not shift simply because the surveillance has become cheaper and easier to perform.

Furthermore, why should there be an expectation of privacy attached to public acts? Walking down the street, driving on public roads, running red lights — all of these things happen in public, and are shared with whoever happens to be watching.

Not to mention the indiscriminate surrender of privacy occurring all the time on social media, or the purposeful surrender of privacy with which we facilitate online transactions.

I am much more comfortable with law enforcement’s tracking me to improve public safety than I am with Google’s tracking me to improve its bottom line.

DAVID BERMAN, NEW YORK

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