Privacy in the Internet Age: State Surveillance vs. Social Networking

At what point does information sharing online become an invasion of privacy? A case in Seattle may start to provide an answer.

At issue in the case is a state government (North Carolina) who has begun conducting audits of online retailers to track down potentially unpaid sales tax versus one of the largest online retailers (Amazon.com) who claim that such information requests by government entities amount to an invasion of privacy.

The case offers a glimpse at the changed landscape of privacy in the United States. Under the old model, the law was meant to protect the public from a snooping government. And the government was generally the only entity with the resources to snoop on people in a systematic way.

Today, the online snooping (make that “data collection”) never stops. Can the old tools really prevent the government from closely monitoring its people when so much information is a mere Internet search away? And is the government the one we really need protection from?

We’re gonna party like it’s 1984.

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