Someone To Watch Over You

After 9/11 happened, America has become obsessed on ensuring national security. They have resorted to stringent airport measures and urged other countries to do the same. They have also resorted to data mining - piecing together bits of information gathered from various sources to come up with a theory or even a conclusion that some person is a threat to national security, a terrorist. This practice raises issues concerning the violation of civil liberties and leads one to wonder which is more scary: to not know that a terrorist is amongst us or to have private details of your life accessible to others. According to an article in The Economist, it seems to be that the very thing which purports to safeguard liberty may also threaten it. Must it be accepted that they are corollary to each other? In data mining, the state violates the very thing that it seeks to protect. It may be argued that police power trumps private interests. However, while police power is said to be the one of the most (if not the most) illimitable, pervasive powers of the state, it is still subject to due process and other limitations.