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America Gonzalez

Mrs. Acosta

English 10

25 November 2019

Privacy & Free Speech

American citizens are born given the privilege to have privacy and free speech within the

U.S. To think about the consequences associated with trading privacy for safety is just bizarre.

“The highest law in our land is the U.S. constitution, which has some amendments, known as the

Bill of Rights”(American Civil Liberties Union Foundation). Showing that having privacy and

free speech is a powerful thing to have as an American citizen.Although the government states

that they respect those rights given to us from birth and that they follow them when it comes to

an Americans privacy and free speech it’s all just a lie. What the government doesn’t want to

admit is that they already invade our privacy simply by modern technology such as our phone.

Take for example the browser website Google. Google saves everything each individual person

searches and then sells that information to companies for them to make target ads specifically for

that individual. Therefore privacy and free speech shouldn’t be traded for safety because it goes

against our fundamental rights, gives the government more control over U.S. citizens, and lastly

our morals won’t be respected.

 Furthermore our privacy goes back to our fundamental rights, an example of this would

be in our country’s fourth amendment. It states, “The right of the people to be secure in their

persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be

violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,

and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be

seized.”(Constitute) This shows that we have a right to our privacy unless the law has a probable

cause to invade it. This also provides American citizens to look upon the constitution, through

the fourth amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the

government and will allow people to stand up for themselves. Overall showing that people

trading their privacy and free speech for safety really isn’t such a smart idea after all. Due to the

amendments within the constitution that are already being broken by the government. Take for

example the Immigration laws, as seen in public news, ICE officers would go to peoples home

and work force to arrest and deport Mexicans back to Mexico. “In the wake of the largest-ever

immigration raid in a single state, child welfare services were left grappling with children who

came home from school to find their parents had been arrested at one of the seven Mississippi

food processing plants targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on

Wednesday”(News).Even family having to see how immigration officers come into their own

homes and take either the mother and or father and leave the children behind with no one to look

after them.

Privacy as well as free speech is the hallmark of Americans' way of life which shapes our

existence and makes us uniquely diverse. For instance, schools are implementing students to
wear and or use badges and student idea tags while in school to keep students safe. But some

schools are using these badges and tags as tracking devices to know where the student is at all

times. High-tech school monitoring: safety v.s privacy states “RFID technology tracks students

by means of badges or tags with embedded computer chips. The chips either broadcast a radio

signal or are read when students go near a radio-frequency reader” (Paragraph 5). Here by

showing that trading privacy and our freedom of speech will allow the government to gain more

control over us. An example of this would be Schools no longer implementing and or sending

letters home to parents so that they could sign papers giving consent about their children wear

these embedded computer chip badges/ tags. Taking into consideration a grand majority of

schools nationwide are banning the use of biometric identification in schools. High-tech school

monitoring: safety v.s privacy also states “ This year, Florida became the first state to ban the use

of biometric identification in its schools. Kansas said the information cannot be collected without

student or parental consent” ( paragraph 4). Privacy is Something that should not be treated for

safety because in some scenarios your safety will never be safe with 100% guarantee. Therefore

showing that privacy and you’re free of speech It’s worth more than safety because you can’t

stand up for what you believe it’s not right or you don’t like. As you can see in this case having

privacy and freedom of speech as a parent and a student will allow you to not give any of your

personal information and all your locations to the government.

Although trading our privacy and free speech for safety can affect the morals that each of

us individuals it can also result in great use such as getting information about how someone die

and or how something happened or how it happened. Yes all and every one of us American
citizens have your beliefs and what we think is right and wrong but overall looking at the bright

side of it all these modern technologies that are being invented and used to invade our privacy

are actually keeping us safe in some way. Shhh, Amazon’s “Alexa” could be listening to our

conversation and says “It's a fair question after recent events. Authorities investigating the

slaying of an Arkansas man have tried to obtain voice recordings collected by an Amazon Echo

speaker and its Alexa digital assistant” (paragraph 1). Overall this shows that it might not be as

bad as we think about trading our privacy and freedom of speech for safety although it means

that we’re giving up what we feel is right and for us keeping our privacy so that no one else

would know about certain things that happen in our daily lives. Yet Americans shouldn’t trade

their privacy and freedom of speech for safety because although safety can be beneficial and the

government can help keep us safe it’s not always 100% guaranteed. Lastly, if we're being 100%

honest, all Americans' privacy and freedom of speech counts because that’s who we are and it’s

our beliefs and what we feel is right and what part of our information shouldn’t be out there for

the whole world to see.

In conclusion, privacy and freedom of speech is a very important aspect of every

American’s life. Privacy in general keeps us protected and allows our information to be stored

safely without there being any type misused by culprits. Freedom of speech has a grand purpose

and that purpose is to allow us to say what we believe and stand up for yourself and among

yourself as the American people we are. Not only is privacy and free speech a huge aspect of

once life but without it we would have fundamental rights, or morals, and over all we wouldn’t
have any say or control over our daily lives. These are the reasons why privacy and free speech

should not be treated for safety.

Work Citation

Article provide in google classroom

● “Shhh, Amazon's ‘Alexa’ Could Be Listening to Our Conversation.” Newsela,

newsela.com/read/listening-home-tech/id/25512/.

● “High-Tech School Monitoring: Safety vs. Privacy.” Newsela,

newsela.com/read/student-tracking/id/5841/.

Outside Source

● “Your Right to Free Expression.” American Civil Liberties Union,

www.aclu.org/other/your-right-free-expression.

● “Fourth Amendment.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute,

www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment.

● Ainsley, Julia, and Didi Martinez. “What ICE Did and Did Not Do for Kids Left behind

by Mississippi Raids.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Aug. 2019,

www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/what-ice-did-did-not-do-kids-left-behind-missis

sippi-n1040776.