Privacy in the 21st century

A story Thursday on NPR’s “Morning Edition” focused on Elk Grove, Calif., a Sacramento suburb, expanding the use of video surveillance cameras as a public safety tool.

The same morning, many American newspapers carried front-page stories about FBI Director Robert Mueller’s acknowledgment that the bureau has used unmanned aerial drones for surveillance in the United States, although on a very limited basis.

Mueller’s revelation, along with news that the National Security Agency has been collecting telephone and Internet data as weapons to thwart terrorist attacks has a lot of Americans talking about whether the federal government and local governments like Elk Grove are overstepping citizens’ right to privacy.

But in our 21st century world of sophisticated technology, is privacy a relative term these days? From our Internet searches being tracked by companies wanting to sell us something; to the GPS tracker on your cellphone; to retail, law enforcement and traffic cameras; to license-plate readers atop police cruisers, our “privacy” is being impinged upon daily.

Much of this surveillance is being done for laudable reasons and there is not much we can do about it. Still, we wonder what citizens would say if they were first asked whether they wanted some of these surveillance tools put in place.