After San Francisco’s security overhaul, one of the latent consequences were all the “not-terrorists” that were caught as a result of the increased surveillance measures. Marcus specifically mentions husbands and wives caught cheating, kids caught sneaking out, and one teenager whose parents discovered he had been visiting the clinic for AIDS medication. These people certainly aren’t terrorists – in fact, they’re not even drug dealers, thieves, or criminals to any extent. They aren’t guilty people, just “people with secrets” (121).

I believe the ability to keep secrets, to some extent, is a completely necessary aspect of any society. I’m not saying that sneaking out is right or wrong, and I’m certainly not saying everyone should cheat on their spouses, but that these are things that should be discovered (or not) and dealt with by the family, not the government. The government has a duty to ensure the safety of its citizens, but only after obtaining consent from its citizens. And in this case, citizens did not give consent to having details of their private, personal lives exposed. Take, for example, a sexually active gay teen growing up in an extremely religious and conservative family. He may need to visit Planned Parenthood to obtain information and medication to stay safe; however, he may not have come out to his parents yet and may not want them knowing this information for a multitude of reasons. Though this case is nuanced, it represents a more broad category of secrets that are kept for the benefit of both the individual and the family. There will always be secrets that need to be kept and actions that need to be hidden, and it is not the government’s duty to interfere.