You don't have a right to privacy.

I've heard more than one politician refer to our "right of/to privacy," one or the other, not sure which wording is actually in the Constitution. Well, to tell the truth, neither is. There is no right of or to privacy in the Constitution.

You'd think there would be, right? We should be left alone as long as we're not doing something we shouldn't be doing. It's kind of a fundamental human right that means no helmeted cops can burst into our houses in the middle of the night without a really good cause. Right?

And shouldn't we be able to sue the city or state or nation if it turns out that the cops had the wrong address?

Shouldn't all this be included in that "right to privacy."

Alas, no. We do have a Constitutional right that outlaws unlawful search and seizure, but all cops have to do to get around that is to get a judge to sign a form -- and then there they are at your door in the middle of the night, in full SWAT gear, scaring the shit out of you and our kids.

I'm not a panaroid right-winger. In fact I'm more liberal than Ted Kennedy. But I think we should all understand that we are not guaranteed the right to be left alone. It's one of those pieces of folk wisdom, something we just take for granted: no one can mess with me if I haven't done anything to deserve governmental surveillance.

Not true.

You can be messed with at any time. Any government agency can surveil you -- spy on you -- without much reason to do so. If you've lived a pristine life -- no drugs, no husbands with iffy real estate deals, etc. -- you probably have nothing to worry about. But what if something on one of your tax returns raises red flags with the IRS? Can they come after you?

Of course they can. First you get a letter, then maybe a visit.

We assume that in the U.S.A., that won't be an issue. But those of us who were young in the 1960s remember government camera crews filming protests, honing in on individuals, their faces, used later to indict them. Whoa! This is America? Well, it was then.

Is it now? If you take part in a Gay Pride parade or a protest of one of our wars, either Iraq or that other other one I can never spell, will your long-lens close-up photo be part of some CIA file? Who knows? The real workings of a democracy are Top Secret.

What you and I should assume is that nothing, in this age of instant video, is private. It's not necessarily bad -- governments do have to guard their secrets, after all -- but it's certainly worth thinking about. Do you join this cause or that one, rallying for this group's rights or that one's? Are you comfortable being filmed doing what you think is right?

People in other countries have long had to make these decisions, and often it's cost them their freedom and, too many times, their lives. Think China and Iran and too many countries to name. We in America live in a kind of Disneyland. We aren't imprisoned and tortured for our beliefs, but lots of people are, all over the world, for exactly the rights we take for granted.

Back the homeland, we have no right of privacy. It's a myth. We can be investigated at any time by the government, even without our knowledge.

So where does that leave us?

Back where we started, of course. In a country where most of our rights are protected but not that one that we kind of invented and just took for granted. Privacy. Dream on, boys and girls.


If you talk or text on your I-phone or your Blackberry or any other device, you are surrendering your right not to be monitored or hacked into or otherwise compromised. Hey, welcome to the wonderful new world of full disclosure.

Your friends know everything about you, but so do lots of other computer-savvy people, including the government. So just do what you know you should do and don't worry about it, right? Live a good life and assume that if anyone is snooping on you, they won't discover anything you wouldn't want to share with the world.

Hey, you have nothing to hide.

Right?