They know my favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins is vanilla and that my favorite band is Color Me Badd. Darn it all.

Although anmalone is correct in that the "right to privacy" appears nowhere in the amendments, the 4th amendment implies a right (to privacy) of individuals against illegal searches and seizures and arrests without legal warrants.This issue betrays the hypocrisy of our recent collection of conservatives. The hypocrisy that chased me out of the Republican Party (but not necessarily into the warm bosom of the Dems) is that while they excoriate and ridicule "government" they, under GWB, have created the largest one in history...primarily because there's some near-psychotic need to "control" the populace and the current number of staff on the NSA, Homeland Security and CIA weren't nearly enough to watch everybody. The incremental erosion of a person's right to privacy (from government snooping), a hallmark of the establishment of the nation, is the one Constitutional amendment under constant bombardment.

If you look at how Germans, beginning in 1932, willingly endured a gradual, almost imperceptible erosion of their rights, especially privacy and freedom from government snooping, as a trade off for a false sense of security from a nameless enemy, each of us who can detect patterns should experience a butt-puckering reaction. Each right surrendered created the opportunity for the government to steal away another. I'm very disappointed that no one on either side of the Congressional aisle has made a strong move to repeal the Patriot Act, or to re-establish habeus corpus, or to shut down the (eventual) gulag in GTMO, or to put the kybash (or however you spell it) on illegal wiretaps, illegal searches and seizures, and those damned threatening letters from the National Security Agency.

Is it a fair assumption that if the US voting public does nothing to stop government intercession in our lives, we will devolve into an autocracy/fascist state? ["There's nothing wrong with a dictator...just as long as I'm the dictator [acquiescent laughter from a gaggle of amoral sycophants]."

Bill Maher from Real Time:

Oh, please, Americans don't want privacy. They want attention! They'll put a camera in their shower and show it on the Internet! To get on television, they'll marry strangers and eat a cow's rectum, and ice dance with Todd Bridges. They're trying to get on a show called "Big Brother"! We are a nation of exhibitionists from "me" to shining "me." And what we really fear isn't that someone's listening; it's that no one's listening. This whole country is one big desperate cry for somebody to listen to "listen to me, photograph me, Google me, read my blog!" "Read my diary; read my memoir. It's not interesting enough? I'll make sh*t up!" You know that I could go on the Internet right now under my alternate screen name, "CherryXXX69," and get complete strangers to email me a picture of their scrotum. I tell you, this country gave the finger to privacy a long time ago.

What are they going to find out by spying on me? Nothing. Spy away.

This is a five star concern because it effects every American. Most issues effect only some portion of the public. At the present time our government seems intent on flexing its muscle, even if by doing so it is running over the rights and liberties of its own people. I don't understand the politics of it, although I recognize that the white house had no idea that it would be found out on this one. I'm flabergasted that they continue the program and even flaunt it in our faces now that they are discovered.

have you guys ever read 1984? well, we dont want telescreens in every room, watching and listening to everything you do or say. then theres the secret police, and all that. i think we should have privicy, but if theres someone that has a criminal mind or sumthing, they shiould be watched. Big Brother is watching you.

If you don't have control over your possessions and yourself, you don't own your life.

Its a basic right!

The right to privacy-along with basic consideration- has been eroding for several years;some people consider it a violation of their religion to listen to their own bad music quietly.

Along with the ballooning federal budget, privacy is and will remain one of the biggest issues facing Americans. Notwithstanding the fictional constitutional right to privacy that courts like to use on occasion, there is no real general constitutional right to privacy. This fact is easily recognized when one considers that every statute, regulation and common law principle violates one's privacy to a greater or lesser degree, yet these laws are not all constitutional issues. This leaves us with deciding how we shall statutorily frame our privacy rights in relation to the government and each other. With the relatively new terrorist threats and technology advances, these issues are pressing on American society more than ever before in our history. With these modern challenges, compromises are inevitable, indeed they must be made for survival, but we must be careful not to kill the patient with a nasty cure. Nevertheless, retaining privacy has risks and costs, and it would be hypocritical to reasonably demand these rights, yet complain when those risks and costs come to fruition.

We already have the right to privacy. This isn't the 60s, folks.

It is the fundamental right of all American citizens, and it must be protected at all costs. I really don't see any need to write more than that.

Ashcroft's "Patriot Act" is pretty creepy. With all the hyperbole that's being thrown around, it wouldn't surprise me if political dissidents or 15-year-old Johnny, who downloaded the new Eminem song, were considered "terrorists" and affected by this bill. Ben Franklin said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"

Every time America has been at war some have been removed, only to return after that war.

Privacy is good mmmkay!

Our privacy has already been bought and sold.

A big political issue because of the "Patriot's Act". I understand the need to protect our country, but why is the government seizing LIBRARY records without warrants? I don't care about cameras set up in the city or the streets, just as long as they keep it out of my house. No, I really don't care that about all these cameras out in public, they can look through all my records all they want, but it's just IRRITATING to know that someone's doing that, and it makes you wonder how far they'll go.

above all the common person must be protected ,we can not through out the baby with the bath water

God, ammalone! How can anyone be so out of touch with reality? If a citizen's right to privacy is such "pernicious silliness" then why don't you volunteer to be the first one to have a government probe crammed up your butt. There is nothing silly about protecting our right for privacy and because it is not explicitly stated in the Constitution does not mean it is not worth supporting. The framers of the Constitution did not explicitly outline privacy because it was a given and none of our founding fathers would have ever thought the issues of civil liberties we face now would be issues.

Find it in the Constitution then I'll support it. Not it's penumbra or emanation and not even it’s reflection. Pernicious silliness.

The right to privacy is threatened as never before in modern history by the policies of the Bush white house and the Ashcroft justice department. The USA Patriot act is a greater threat to American liberty than any terrorist.

Privacy is essential for all Americans. What we choose to do is not the governments buissness. I especially would not trust the likes of George Bush and John Ashcroft with the new powers that they have recieved to spy on people. These men are seriously dangerous and threaten two-hundred years of constitutional law. Loki13 is a disgusting rascist.

I think that privacy may well be one of the most important issues of the next decade, with the increasing sophistication of technology. Add to that our own fears, and personal privacy could easily become another casualty of 9/11. Once the right to personal privacy has been breached, it becomes very easy to lose other rights associated with it. Unlike Loki, though, I believe that EVERYONE should have the right to privacy. Invading an individual's privacy should be allowed only under exceptional circumstances clearly defined by law and adhered to by law enforcement agencies.

I belive all hard working White Americans deserve complete privacy.

I can do no better in a comment like this than to quote them man who officially broke the record for the most privacy-deprived person in the world, Freddie Mercury-"I want my privacy, and I feel I've given a lot for it." That states my feelings exactly. Take care, everyone!

It is so imperative that we still, after most individual rights are taken away, have our right to privacy. It would be a travesty if this did not happen. If not, we might as well have telescreens and Big Brother as depicted in Orwell's 1984.

Privacy is very important, considering the terrorist activity that is occuring in the United States. Recently, there has been talk in Washington about creating a new "Smart Card" system. It is a card that contains all of our information and it basically will define our identity. While I understand that we need to be more vigilent as a result of the terrorist threat, I believe that this will continue to dwindle down the level of privacy we have as citizens. A card that has all of our personal information may lead to other things that we do not know of yet; technology is eroding our privacy more and more every day. It has its good side, but there is the potential for abuse involved as well. In addition, we have the Patriot Act that President Bush signed into law that will allow for the FBI to use wiretaps more liberally among other things. I think that this is fine because the legislation has to be renewed every three years. This will make sure that no "Big Brother" type of bureaucracy is set up; it is all within the parameters of the checks and balances system. For the interim period, I do think that the FBI is going to need to eavesdrop on people who may be potential terrorists; it is simply part of the war. Terrorist cells that are both active and dormant have established themselves throughout the country. We need to monitor them to make sure that they do not cause anymore activity. The issue of Privacy has many dimensions to it; it has it's good side, but it has a very bad side to it as well. The potential for abuse is there.