Saving Privacy

Author(s): 
Publication Type: 
Other Writing
Publication Date: 
May 19, 2014

Reed Hundt proposes democratic action in response to our government’s secret infrastructure for monitoring and controlling modern communications. “Citizens,” he writes, “should be encouraged to take action on behalf of their own privacy and security.”

He is right, but he overlooks the fact that democratic activism has historically been a casualty of—not a cure for—powerful government surveillance. Mass surveillance insulates governments from democratic pressures. Efforts to democratize surveillance must go hand in hand with widespread adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies, or this movement will face potentially insurmountable challenges.

Read Jennifer Granick's full response at the Boston Review