26th Annual Bill of Rights
Art and Essay Contest, 2009-2010

TOPIC:  Privacy and free speech on the Internet:
              Should our private information be gathered, used, or sold to the Government?

1st Prize, High School
by P.H. from Pacific Grove High School

Though it is a fact that most Americans would prefer not to acknowledge, the private information entered into the Internet can be gathered, used, and sold to our government. In the modern age, nearly everyone in America utilizes the Internet as a tool for a nearly infinite number of things. The use of many websites, including commercial and social networking websites, requires private information to be submitted to the site in order for full use or access to the sites. Most Internet users do not realize that the private information they are submitting is distributed in ways not publicly expressed by the website, for reasons both commercial and otherwise. The information collected and distributed by these sites can even end up in the hands of the United States Government without the control or the consent of the individual to which it pertains. The question must be raised as to whether or not the government should have the right to collect and purchase such information without the consent or often even the knowledge of the individual who originally submitted it to the website.

With the incalculably vast numbers of people using the Internet every day for nearly every conceivable purpose, the transfer of information from site to site is not only inevitable, but also necessary for the successful operation of the complex networking of the Internet. The majority of this information is harmless, sharing no private information about the user to the websites it is transferred to. However, the sites that require more private information about the user -- birth dates, identification or account numbers, etc. -- should not legally be able to share such information with other websites without the consent of the user. The Constitution of the United States of America implies that all citizens are allowed the right to privacy and states in the Fourth Amendment that, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures may not be violated..." Since the Internet was certainly not a foreseeable issue during the writing of the Constitution, the right to privacy and the right to security of property must be extended to modern technology in order to ensure the protection of the rights of American citizens.

The United States Government, by law of the Constitution, is required to provide its citizens the rights specified in both the articles and amendments of the document. Therefore, the American People are entitled to protection from unlawful search and seizure of property, which would include private information. When the government purchases or stores private information received from websites without the consent of the user, they are going against the Constitution. However, due to the covert nature of such transfers, the majority of Americans have their private information distributed without knowing. If websites that participated in transferring the private information of their users were required by law to not only state their intent to transfer publicly but also to require the consent of the user beforehand, the American people would quickly become aware how widespread the secret distribution of information is.

From a commercial standpoint, the sale and distribution of the private information of users makes absolute business sense for the websites. Information such as names, email addresses, telephone numbers, etc. are incredibly useful to advertising and other commercial companies as it increases the amount of people they can promote their product to. For the websites that sell private information to these companies, a large amount of money can be made for a comparatively small amount of work. It is little wonder that the sale and distribution of such information is so widespread in a capitalist economy, as it provides the maximum amount of profit to the shareholders of the companies. However, this does not change the fact that sharing private information without the expressed consent of the user is immoral and unconstitutional.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Government has been increasingly suspicious of the people and intrusive in their attempts to acquire information about future terrorist threats. The Patriot Act, signed into law on October 26, 2001, allows the government to legally use methods of surveillance that were previously categorized as intrusions of privacy in the lives of the American people. The methods included surveillance of email communications, allowing the government to monitor emails that could potentially threaten American's homeland security. The government also purchases information about American citizens and their online activities from websites that have such information stored. What the government does with the information they purchase is not known; the principle is immoral regardless of the intent.

With the realization that selling the private information of Internet users is immoral and unconstitutional, the American people should no longer tolerate the U.S. Government's active utilization of this practice. The practice or storing and analyzing private information without the consent or even the knowledge of the owner goes against core democratic morals and the Constitution of the United States. Action needs to be taken by the American people to reclaim the implied right to privacy and the expressed right to security from unlawful search and seizure. Despite potential foreign or domestic threats to security, the government cannot continue to monitor the citizens through the acquisition of private information via the Internet. True American democratic values, all the way back to the days of the founding of the United States, ensure the people the rights stated in the Constitution, whether over the Internet or otherwise.