Free Speech and the Marketplace of Identities

The serious dangers data mining presents to our freedoms and privacy are well documented. In many ways it threatens our very way of life, beginning with the notion -- long thought to be fundamental and unalterable -- that our identities belong to us and us alone. As we discussed in class, our government does little to prevent such substantial intrusions into our lives; indeed, it facilitates data mining, both through legislation and through its own use of the technique. Rather than protecting our interests, our supposed guardians fuel their addiction to data by feeding on our identities. And instead of reeling in the spooks, the Supreme Court has led the charge. In perhaps one of the most counterintuitive decisions in recent memory, the Court held in 2011 that, not only does the Constitution offer no protection against the schemes of data miners -- it protects their machinations from most government regulation.