“People stopped trusting the government, after the government stopped trusting them.” – _The West Wing_

A recent ruling by the 9th Circuit is causing a shockwave in the tech community. I personally don’t find the ruling to be that shocking, but judge for yourself by reading the ruling.

In summary, the Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling prohibiting border agents from searching the contents on a laptop. Technology and privacy buffs view the contents of the laptop to be an extension of a person’s memory, while the government views the contents as just documents inside a fancy briefcase. While I enjoy my privacy and the rights afforded to me by the Constitution, I would agree with the government that the hard drive is just a technological briefcase.

Ignoring the trite arguments for selective privacy, this issue roots back to the same question we have been faced with for the last several hundred years – do we abandon our rights for additional security?

Fans of Jefferson would quote – “A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” Fans of the current administration would argue that the rules of war today can’t be compared to those during Jefferson’s time.

I’m not taking sides on this ruling, because this isn’t the ruling you should be debating. Argue the bigger picture; debate our liberty against our security.