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Essay: Privacy is Vital to Freedom – Apple is Right

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In 2013, 5 exabytes of data were created every day. That’s five billion gigabytes each day. To put that in context, 5 exabytes of content were created between the birth of the world and 2003.

In 2016 it’s safe to say there is even more information created daily and then stored in data clouds around the world, and there’s no end in sight. And as essayist Art Cyr reminds us, the battle over who has access to all that information is still being fought:

“Big Brother Is Watching You” was the pervasive punch-line in British writer George Orwell's novel “1984.” Recent developments regarding business and government relations give fresh currency to the classic.

Computer, cell phone and telecommunications giant Apple has been strenuously resisting U.S. federal government efforts to seek access to data on one particular cell phone, in possession of vicious killers who carried out a mass murder in San Bernardino, California. Apple leader Steve Jobs, not long before his death, strongly emphasized protecting customer privacy in announcing a new version of the iPhone.

The White House has explicitly endorsed efforts of the FBI to force the corporation to cooperate in overcoming encryption. To date, the federal judiciary has determined the FBI may be overreaching authority. An effort to apply a law from the late 1700s to justify heavy-handed high-tech snooping is on hold.

Orwell, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, was a committed socialist. Unlike many on the left today, however, he had personal involvement with working people, because he was one. He stressed egalitarianism, while warning about dangers of concentrated power in government as well as corporations.

The first federal misstep in handling the San Bernardino case was taken by President Barack Obama, who transformed a brutal but local crime into a major international incident by addressing the event in a formal speech from the Oval Office. He then travelled to Southern California, expanding global attention to the crime.

By so doing he diminished the presidency, and simultaneously opened the door for the Islamic State organization plausibly to take credit. The terror group immediately did so, adding to media attention and to their prestige in extremist circles. There is no evidence that the California killers had direct ties to the Islamic State or related groups.

A wit once quipped that “1984” was really about 1948, a reference to the Stalinist dictatorships in the time the novel was published. In the late 1940s and well into the 1950s, intense anti-communism seriously distorted U.S. domestic politics and our wider society. Intellectuals accused of left-wing views found their careers damaged and in some cases destroyed. Blacklisting of writers became a symbol of this intimidation. That era passed but potentially dangerous state authority remains.

Insightful critiques of FBI overreach have come from a conservative congressman and a senior intelligence pro - U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), and General Michael Hayden, former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency. Issa argues the FBI should press hard themselves to break encryption. Hayden’s long experience leads him to conclude we are more secure overall if people keep their privacy.

An open economy under the rule of law helps limit potential abuse. The effects of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's “Big Bang” deregulation of Britain’s economy continue. A similar process unfolded in the U.S., beginning in the Carter administration and carried much further by the Reagan administration.

This in turn brings context to Jobs’ statement. Apple in 2010 surpassed Microsoft in total capitalization, a major accomplishment for a firm floundering before cofounder Jobs returned. Products which facilitate freedom are now major Apple marketing themes.

In our fascinating, fantastic global information revolution, institutions committed to following the law and protecting personal privacy - not just profits and power - deserve our support.

Government snoops try to pry, today as through history.

Always remember: Big Brother is not watching you.

Not yet.

But he'd like to.

Lake Effect contributor Art Cyr is a professor of political economy and world business and the director of the Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage College in Kenosha. 

Arthur I. Cyr is Director of the Clausen Center for World Business and Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Kenosha. Previously he was President of the Chicago World Trade Center, the Vice President of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, a faculty member and executive at UCLA, and an executive at the Ford Foundation. His publications include the book After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia (Macmillan and NYU Press).