(b) We also use the phrase “civil liberties” to refer to more diffuse concerns about
government power, which are not necessarily driven by any sense of a privileged
type of action which individuals should be left free to perform. For example, the
government’s ability to listen in on telephone conversations is a civil liberties
concern, even though the “liberty” in question—sometimes referred to as
“privacy”—does not amount to very much more than the condition of not being
subjected to this scrutiny.