In a word the key word is Money. The point at issue is that the covenant signed between the state and its citizens called the Constitution is between the state as a handy if mythical entity and indi vidual citizens or their representatives. It is not a covenant signed between one mythical entity, the state and another, the information gathering and dissemination agency. This is because any such agency consists of individual citizens. Since any covenant signed with individual citizens is anterior to any subsequent under standing reached with organisations of citizens, the right to privacy has by defini tion to be anterior to and more important than the right to gather information.
Conflicts arise when the rights of individuals come up against the interests of or ganisations.
Inevitably since organisations command greater clout in terms of men, money and muscle it is the individual that suffers. It is to prevent this that the rights of individuals are treated with greater respect than the rights of organisa tions any where in a liberal democratic set up. American politics is a mine field of conflicting interest groups in which the rights of individuals often find themselves orphaned. The right to bear arms for example has been appropriated by the National Rifle Association and extremist organisa tions like the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan, who claim that it includes the right to own modern automatic weapons and the equipment for mass destruc tion, including anti-tank missiles. It is therefore impossible under American condi tions to imagine a completely disarmed population which would obviate mass vio lence among citizens.