Many TV shows depict law enforcement personnel accessing readily accessible databases that contain all types of records about individuals –records about everything from address to telephone records to finances, insurance, and criminal history. The information you share with your bank, doctor, insurance agent, the TSA, ancestry kit companies, and on social media can make your life an open book. Here are some questions to address as you reflect on this:
1. Are you comfortable with giving away some of your privacy for increased security? Why or why not? How far would you let the government go in examining people’s private lives?
2. How much access should we have to certain aspects of others’ private lives? For example, should States share criminal databases? But should a database of people paroled or released for crimes be made public? Why or why not?