Is Privacy a Thing of the Past?

Do you have any expectation of privacy?

 With the recent revelations about the use of your tax information for political purposes by members of the President’s administration, the eavesdropping by the NSA on your telephone conversations, postal service noting who sends you mail, license plate readers, drones, cameras on the streets, face recognition software in many places, do you think you have any expectation of privacy left?

 Who knows about these things? You can bet our potential enemies do. Every nation-state in the world uses such methods and devices to gather intelligence. So these revelations are not news to them. It isn’t news to most terrorist groups, either. I guess it is news to us taxpayers.

 Whether you have an expectation to privacy or not, this stuff surely brings into question this federal administration’s promise of transparency in government. Mr. President every potential enemy knows all this stuff is going on. Why not tell the American people the extent of the federal government’s snooping on its own residents?

The City is required to maintain records in response to state law. We only keep the information as long as required. When the City receives an information request for any City record, we make it a practice to redact private information such as social security numbers and the like.

The City of Dacula does not own or use license plate readers. And I got a laugh the other day. Phone call from a state agency wanting a list of people of hispanic ethnicity who live in the City. Couldn't give it to them, because we don't need,  collect, or use that kind of information in Dacula.