The U.N. Convention on Human Rights does not have the force of law in the United States. While many of the rights in the list above were first codified in the

The U.N. Convention on Human Rights does not have the force of law in the United States. While many of the rights in the list above were first codified in the Constitution, others are not specified as rights in that document. Of course, being natural rights, those not so enumerated are assumed to obtain unless specifically restricted by the Constitution or federal, state, or local law. In the U.S., the place to look for whether this or that right not specifically called out in the Bill of Rights has been restricted is those laws and the court rulings concerning those laws. So, for example, there is no right to education in the U.S., and while the U.S. historically has been the greatest haven for asylum seekers, that does not mean that non-citizens have an affirmative right to enter the U.S. The saddest part of all this is that the dossier on you and me was made possible by people like you and me who work in the tech industry. Google and Facebook have information on most people that the Stasi could only have dreamed of possessing.