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?

2nd Prize, High School
by G.C. from Pacific Grove High School

As most internet users sit before their computers and partake in a variety of online activities, they feel they are safe and secure inside their own homes. Many of these users will never realize that the websites they use are silently peering into their homes and taking virtual snapshots of their private information. Internet providers have the capability to collect and sell users' private information and they can easily exercise this ability because they often cultivate these archives of private information without the users' knowledge or consent. By taking advantage of the public's ignorance on this issue, most companies that collect this information have avoided complaints and law suits. However, these companies and the federal government that purchases and stores the personal information are still skirting the issue of constitutional violation of the right to privacy and unlawful search and seizure.

The right to privacy is protected indirectly by the United States Constitution and explicitly by the California Constitution. This right should encompass personal information generated by internet use in addition to the physical personal effects that receive more legal protection. By silently collecting, storing, and selling the valuable information of their internet users without notification and consent, these online companies are engaging in unauthorized intrusions of said users' privacy. The public should not have to choose between utilizing the resource of the internet in today's technologically advanced environment and keeping its personal data private from companies that have no legal rights to obtain it. Because most internet sites do not provide a disclaimer which explicitly denies privacy to users, these users can reasonably expect that their constitutional right to privacy will be upheld. Therefore, any website or internet provider found collecting, storing, sharing, or selling private information without obtaining the consent of its users should be charged with unlawful invasion of privacy. Although invasion of privacy presents a notable concern to the public, the freedom of speech can also be infringed by the activities of internet providers.

The First Amendment to the Constitution protects the freedom of speech in plain language. On the internet however, the freedom of speech is often twisted and infringed upon. In the instance of anonymous defamatory remarks made on websites or other public bulletin boards on the internet, the targets of these remarks often take advantage of a website's store of information and use subpoenas to obtain the identities of the anonymous posters. In the face of lawsuits and subpoenas, internet providers have been known to turn over detailed private information to the plaintiff companies without informing their users. This transaction of personal information such as names and addresses jeopardizes the individual's freedom of speech because the companies in question hope to use this personal information against the internet users to keep them from posting more defamatory remarks. In addition to an infringement of the freedom of speech, the collecting and selling of personal information on the internet also breaches the boundaries of unlawful search and seizure.

Although the Fourth Amendment clearly states 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," this right seems to have been ignored in many cases involving virtual "papers and effects." The information gathered by internet providers often ends up in the hands of the government. Without proper and specific legislation in place to protect the rights of internet users, the government can manage at this point in time to purchase and collect the private information of users without warrants or proof of probable cause. The unlawful seizure of an individual's personal information on the computer and the unlawful seizure of an individual's private files in an office, for example, should be held as equitable violations of the Constitution and should be treated equally before a court of law. The protection against search and seizure without a warrant has been proved necessary considering that the government has used this illegally obtained information to unfairly deny loans, drivers' licenses, and jobs.

The collection, sharing, and selling of internet users' private information clearly violates the United States Constitution in regard to three key principles. The internet providers that intentionally or unknowingly ignore the terms of the Constitution often infringe on the right to privacy, the freedom of speech, and protection from unlawful search and seizure in some way. Due to the public's ignorance of the laws and the strategic manipulation of rules by government and online companies, the rights of the internet user are routinely disrespected. In order to put an end to this violation of rights, new legislation should be put in place to clearly extend the principles of the First and Fourth Amendments to the realm of the internet. Without action from the federal legislature, the integrity of the Constitution will diminish further after each infringement of a civil liberty on the internet