March 28, 2024
Letter

Where to draw the line

The writer of a recent op-ed opined that the fuss about domestic spying is needless because our privacy has already been compromised so much by commercial interests. I’ll bet he would draw the line somewhere though: How about a government surveillance camera in his bathroom? The question isn’t about whether to draw a line, but where to draw it.

I say we are already on a slippery slope at the bottom of which is potentially a full-blown police state, and the time to put on the brakes is now, before we get farther down to where objecting is itself illegal. We can start by contacting our senators and congressmen.

An issue important to me as a psychologist is the privacy of communications with my clients. Both professional ethics and the law require that I protect that privacy — not only the contents of our communications, but even the fact that we have communicated. The same is true for all mental health and medical professions, as well as clergy and lawyers.

The recently revealed spy practice of sweeping up all of our phone records to see who is calling whom is a direct violation of those professional privacy laws, as well as a number of other laws, and probably the Constitution as well.

Peter Rees

Trenton


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