Jan 28 is National Privacy Day and International Data Privacy Day.

Palantir like Uber is a profitable unicorn hoping to cash in on selling company shares to the public before a serious market downturn some economists say is inevitable. This 'under-the-radar' data mining company works with government agencies to disrupt terrorist networks. 

Technological or legal efforts to protect data and our privacy obviously have a down side. Protecting criminal and murderous deviants that are committed to doing harm to us, our finances, our economy, and ultimately our national security.  

Russia hacks evidently used US data to individually target Trump voters with fake news intended to exacerbate existing political divisions.  Shutting these operations down in the future would be a good idea but that would require technical and legal efforts to identify who (or what bot) was doing it.  Say good buy to privacy. 

This is yet another example of our freedom/security dilemma.  The fact remains that we can only maximize both our freedom and our security if we use our freedoms responsibly so as not to instigate violence or other harms against us.  

Given that our nation has already done significant harm to millions of people and dozens of nations abroad combined with the fact that real or virtual walls won't stop cyber communications from crossing our borders, we may still have a high security cost to pay in blood, treasure, and privacy.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was created to protect citizens from unreasonable search and seizure.  It is often referred to as the privacy amendment.  Given advances in multiple technologies is our government now able to do this without full global investigation and enforcement capacity?

The Fourth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. And sets requirements for issuing warrants.  Warrants must be issued by a judge or magistrate, justified by probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Off shore banks are believed to have as much as $32 trillion stashed there by political leaders and their cronies (Manaford) who stole the money from their own citizens, criminal cartels, and wealthy capitalists evading taxes.  This volume of money could be devoted to doing great things in saving lives and investing in human capital that would likely result in more prosperity, better health, and physical safety for all. 

Jan 28, 2019 also marks the 38th anniversary of International Data Privacy Day.  Data Privacy Day is an international effort started in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28, 1981 signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. The Data Privacy Day campaign is officially led by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA).

And if you are not confused by all this you may find it confusing trying to protect your data and privacy even if you don’t use the internet.  

So much of our activities are now being recorded and advances in sensing technologies are making it virtually impossible to remain undetected and anonymous, unless you are an extremely clever and private person.  

That alone might make you suspicious of others around you and a government fearful of terrorists, criminals, or takeovers.