Protection vs. Privacy

As we become increasingly fearful of terrorist attacks and other such things we continue to seek protection. Our government, in its efforts to provide that protection is beginning to resort to means that teeter precariously on the fence of privacy.
Is it not ironic that in seeking to protect ourselves we must now open wide the doors to our lives. To protect ourselves from the unknown, we must make ourselves well-known. Is this truly progress? Or are we actually taking steps backwards? Our government, our country was founded on principles of freedom. Do we not release a little of that freedom in handing over our privacy?
Ok, so maybe that sounds a little overcautious, perhaps even a little paranoid. But in all actuality we are taking the first steps through a doorway which leads to further and deeper invasions of privacy. These things need to be reined in at the beginning of the tunnel, otherwise there’s no room to turn around and come back.
Sure, they’re only recording physical aspects like fingerprints and retinal scans to better identify you now, but how soon will they ask to be able to know everything about you, just to make sure you aren’t hiding something in your past which will lead to a threat in the future?
Remember, with everything being networked nowadays, it really only takes one thing from you (say a fingerprint for example), to be able to pull up so much about you. Your every move can even be tracked and traced because of GPS and gadgets in our cars, cell phones and PDA’s. Ok, we may be safe from 90% of the population because most people don’t know how to access that information. But who’s to say that you will not become a victim of one of those in the 10% who do know? All it takes is one person to make you a victim.
As well, if we continue to allow implementations of policies that allow the government, security agencies and police to access our life information, somewhere down the line it will be used against us.
We are all human, including those who run our government. And in being human we have just as much chance of being evil as we do in being good. Even good people make bad decisions, and can be influenced by bad people. We can open up our lives in the name of protection assuming that the information will be used for the good intentions it is supposed to be. But we also open ourselves up to the chance, nay the very real possibility, that someone with bad intentions will use that information for their own purposes. Or that many people with bad intentions will use that information for their own purposes. It doesn’t have to be done on a large scale to be a problem. If someone is victimizing someone else using these means, it becomes a problem. Because how many others will get the same idea?
Also, if our lives depend upon our identification through a computer system, how many times will someone lose their whole life because of a computer glitch? (Remember computer are made by humans!)If we lose the human aspect of trust we take that risk of one minor bug taking away our whole life.
Such a topic could be argued forever. I sincerely hope that my children, or even their future children do not have to live in a society where everyone must be verified by a computer before they can interact or do transactions. Or where the government can punch in your name and know exactly where you are at that moment and whether you ate a hot dog or pizza for lunch!