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One of the consequences of the Edward Snowden story is a heightened discussion about the importance of privacy - in particular when or if privacy should be traded off in order to combat terrorism. To think about this we need to understand why privacy of individuals is important to a democracy. We often hear statements like “I have nothing to hide”, or as a friend of mine put it “the NSA doesn’t care about insignificant people like you or me”. I may care about my privacy, but should my personal desire trump the needs of our broader society?

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