Essay: Law Enforcement Authority and Privacy Policy

Privacy is an issue that has got a lot of people fixated upon it and has spun a lot of debates, including bills in legislation across constitutions in numerous countries. The fact that privacy is held as a very upright human right is what makes it such a hot debated issue when privacy is disdained in criminal investigations, and surveillance. In the right mind, no one would make privacy issues so common as they are today. In previous eras, privacy issues were never taken into context because privacy was respected, and yet criminal investigations still proved successful. Overuse of authority over privacy rights in criminal investigations only make it beneficial for the law enforcement authorities to subject the accused of numerous crimes as they may get into as much privacy of the accused as possible through legal rights and orders. The overuse of authority by law enforcement in terms of privacy policies and criminal investigations is evident throughout the history of criminal investigations and numerous constitutions bills that are ridiculous in terms of their claims to protect the United States of America.

Privacy isn’t as important in the battle over crime as it is stated to be by law enforcement authorities. Privacy should be respected as it is a human right of every individual. The fact that a guy can be traced may sound good when catching a known criminal but when privacy is trespassed over a person who is just accused of a crime and is not actually guilty the whole act of trespassing his privacy itself becomes a crime. Hence, privacy should be respected in the battle of criminal investigation. As for the agreements that are signed by consumers, such agreements only help law enforcement authorities to track down a subject that is considered to be a criminal. However, the signed agreement helps anonymous users on the internet become completely known to the law enforcement, which is a direct breach of privacy, and should not be allowed.

It is evident that law enforcement overuse their authority of trespassing privacy of the accused in criminal investigations. This is because law enforcement are given legal rights to ascertain power and will to look into personal documents and information of the accused, without the accused being proven guilty of a crime. This has often led to the law enforcement authorizing forgery of evidence or misuse of evidence and personal information of the accused, which in itself is completely illegal and immoral to do so. Moreover, it also makes sense when law enforcement do such activities that they overuse their authority in criminal investigations when ti comes to privacy. It is also known for such law enforcement authorities to blackmail the accused in a criminal investigation by using their personal information another information that would otherwise be secure and considered private under privacy policies if the law enforcement did not have any legal jurisprudence over such rights in criminal investigations.

The fact that privacy policies of numerous companies allow law enforcement to track and follow as well as conduct surveillance over known suspects in criminal investigation shows the direct influence of law enforcement and their authority over the internet and the vast amount of privacy rights that are trespassed by such mentioned law enforcement authorities. The video from the context, which documented the privacy policies of numerous companies and how they are used by commerce and law enforcement agencies to make exceptions of surveillance for people who are being criminally investigated and for consumers who are tracked according to trends and what they purchase so as to target them for similar advertisements by numerous capitalist companies.

The video shows the impact and influence that law enforcement have upon companies on the internet, including Google, which states in its privacy policy that it may help law enforcement agencies track and locate or provide information to said enforcement about people who are being criminally investigated or are considered to be criminals and have been allowed to be investigated (Hoback, 2013). Moreover, recent changes in laws and privacy policies allow law enforcement to even trace and check upon random suspects over the internet by following their trails without even needing permission from judges or a warrant. This itself is a blatant violation of privacy and shows that the law enforcement authorities are being given way too much use and power over policies and trespassing of privacy of individuals within the United States of America.

To limit the authority while maintaining security, the United States of America needs to revoke the patriot act, which violates many human rights and goes against the direct definition of America, which is freedom for all that come to live in it. Google could still allow law enforcement to track down anonymous users by their purchases and visits to different websites. This was enough for the enforcement to figure out who their suspect might actually be. Besides, law enforcement have numerous other ways to track done criminals rather than just use authority to breach privacy of random individuals. Hence, revoking the patriot act would allow all companies to go back to tracking and keeping their users anonymous over the internet, which would allow privacy to be maintained as before and respected for every individual. This would not require a lot to sacrifice, yet it would still provide as much security as was present in times before the patriot act.

Hence, it becomes rather clear as to why it is so evident that law enforcement overuse their authority in the cases of privacy policies to their own advantage and how such direct breaches of privacy are violations of human rights and moral conduct in cultural societies. It becomes quite clear that it is important to reduce the power and authority that law enforcement currently maintain in terms of privacy breaches in random individuals. Adequate methods of maintaining security are available and should be used to maintain security rather than allow law enforcement to breach privacy of individuals that reside in the United States of America. This can also allow the country to reduce capitalist and political influence over individual through the use of the internet in tracing the individuals’ daily lives, thoughts, trends, etc.