A Providence Phoenix editorial ponders the concept of privacy from the beginnings of civilization to present day, noting its definitional refinements as contexts have changed. The modern definition of privacy in the U.S. formed in dissent to a 1928 Supreme Court case on wiretapping, Olmstead v. the United States, the report states, when Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that "The makers of our Constitution...conferred as against the government the right to be left alone." That right may be what Americans risk losing with the advent of technologies such as social networking sites "There are no precedents," the report states. "That is why this is all so frightening to some and exciting to others."
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