The Founding Fathers created the Bill of Rights to protect citizens’ rights including the Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution that states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Today the Trump Administration has given your personal information to the cable and telephone industry so they can sell your data and increase their already high profits. Now they can join the new growth industry in the United States of selling citizens data for profit. And I bet these business will not share it with you.
The U.S. government has demanding that Apple create a way for the FBI to break the encryption of an iPhone while at the same time persecuting U.S. citizens for invading the government’s secret information.
We all have secrets. Many people profess to being an open book, until their wife or husband finds out they are on Ashley Madison. The U.S. government stated many times the Patriot Act was not being used to spy on American citizens.
Privacy is good for all of us. It is also good for a limited time for our government in order to prevent tipping off criminals and enemies of the state. But intentionally weakening encryption schemes and eliminating privacy protections will provide limited benefit with widespread and long lasting harm.