While most of us agree that both are important trying to separate the two is another story.

How much National Security do we need and how much personal privacy are we willing to give up getting it?

What Should Be Private?

We all share things with friends and acquaintances but there are also things we want to keep very private. It might be income, family issues, etc.

Every time I pick up the phone, I just assume I’m on a party line. The same with emails. Those things are out there forever unless your name happens to be Hillary Clinton, or Lisa Page, or Peter Strzok.

And therein lies our mistrust of government. Some people get a free pass based on who you are or who you know.

But when it comes to personal privacy, we the rank and file do not get that same free pass.

Some Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, this is an unanswerable question. While we’d like it to be black and white it’s very gray.

It would appear that the dystopian novel, 1984, by English writer George Orwell published in 1949 has come to pass 35 years later in 2019.

Social media CEO's have a revolving door in Congress since they are there so often to testify about how generous they've been sharing our private information.

As to whether we’re safer in the US today is in dispute by many but the fact that our privacy had eroded is not in question. How much further will we allow it to go?

That’s the 1984-dollar question.