Privacy
So I've heard many times the recent NSA spying-on--Americans thing defended with phrases like "if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't ahve anything to hide." Now, I'm under no illusions that anyone who reads this LJ feels that way and I'd be preaching to the choir trying to refute that, but I do have a not unique, but uncommon personal experience that I think clearly illustrates this.
Several years ago, a friend of mine started to hang out with a different crowd and got into drugs and various criminal activities. We annually invited him to go on vacation with us, and his parents pressured him to go along one year. Long story short, he was arrested a few months later, and when they asked him when the last time he did drugs was (he was previously arrested on drug-related charges). I don't know why he said this, and I will never be able to find out, but he told them that he smoked pot with me outside an arcade. This did not happen. The accusation went on record but was confidential. I should never have known about it, nor should anyone else. However, as some of you may know, my dad worked as Legal COunsel for Marion County and worked with many police officers. They knew, and because they knew my dad (and by extension, me) word got around and someone told him. He confronted me about it, I denied it, and it was never brought up again, but with my parents I'm a fairly private person, and I would certainly have done the same thing if it had been true. My dad knows this. I don't know if he believed me. I don't know if I would believe me if I were in his place. And thus, an unfounded accusation colored (however slightly) my relationship with my parents.
The point is, confidential doesn't mean no one knows it, or no one has access to it. And what happens when those people who happen to know turn out to be employers? Or lenders, or landlords, or friends, or your date?
Several years ago, a friend of mine started to hang out with a different crowd and got into drugs and various criminal activities. We annually invited him to go on vacation with us, and his parents pressured him to go along one year. Long story short, he was arrested a few months later, and when they asked him when the last time he did drugs was (he was previously arrested on drug-related charges). I don't know why he said this, and I will never be able to find out, but he told them that he smoked pot with me outside an arcade. This did not happen. The accusation went on record but was confidential. I should never have known about it, nor should anyone else. However, as some of you may know, my dad worked as Legal COunsel for Marion County and worked with many police officers. They knew, and because they knew my dad (and by extension, me) word got around and someone told him. He confronted me about it, I denied it, and it was never brought up again, but with my parents I'm a fairly private person, and I would certainly have done the same thing if it had been true. My dad knows this. I don't know if he believed me. I don't know if I would believe me if I were in his place. And thus, an unfounded accusation colored (however slightly) my relationship with my parents.
The point is, confidential doesn't mean no one knows it, or no one has access to it. And what happens when those people who happen to know turn out to be employers? Or lenders, or landlords, or friends, or your date?