The Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, places a few restrictions on how the federal government can compile dossiers on Americans. It was passed in response to multiple scandals in which, for instance, former Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover would spy on Americans for his own purposes.
But does it go far enough? When the government can’t get the information on you that it wants because of the Privacy Act, it can always turn to a commercial data broker. And they know more about virtually everyone than anyone else, including the government itself.
On November 2, the cable network CNBC aired a two-hour special called “Big Brother, Big Business” which explored the issues of privacy and technology which can be used to track people.
I don’t want to ruin the ending, so I’ll just say that the Liberty Coalition put a copy of the special up on Google Video, and invite you to watch for yourself and make up your own mind. See what the commercial data brokers have to say for themselves.
I will say, though, that some undeserved anti-corporate bias sneaked through the presentation. The problem is not just that companies are compiling data on people; this is actually a valuable and useful service. For instance, it actually helps cut down on the amount of uninteresting junk mail you receive.
Though there is a down side to commercial data mining: The company collecting information from you can figure things out about you which seem entirely unrelated to the information you give them. You might be pregnant, for instance, but not yet ready to tell anyone about it.
The most serious problem as I see it is that it’s too easy for the data to fall into the wrong hands. And as we’ve seen before in our history, all too frequently the wrong hands are the hands of the government. Once again, the government, not the corporation, is the root of the problem.
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Nov 13, 2006
America In Danger - The Blog » Big Brother, Big Business
Nov 13, 2006
» Blog Archive » Today’s links that matter…
EliteGamer
Nov 13, 2006
I think a big problem is finding out whois of companies that have them masked via other companies.
MAJ Arkay
Nov 15, 2006
“For instance, it actually helps cut down on the amount of uninteresting junk mail you receive.”
Heh. Riiiiight….
I have a philosophical problem with commercial data brokers, rather than the federal government. A commercial data broker, under existing law, is basically free to sell anything about you to anyone willing to pay for it. In this case, federal government entities are just another customer.
The greater danger is the unscupulous private entity grabbing your info.
Back to my four foot high stack of junk mail….
Scott
Nov 16, 2006
I have a huge problem with any company gathering any information on me. I have personally stopped shopping at many places that I know do such things, and I pay for everything with cash, don’t register anything that I buy, etc. People need to wake up and realize that their privacy has been getting raped for decades, (many people don’t even realize that little things that they think are harmless such as savings cards at grocery stores don’t do anything but give you savings… Wrong! They have been tracking you and your purchases since the beginning and it needs to stop, but the only way to stop it is to stop supporting the companies that provide such information to these data miners.
Nov 27, 2006
Privacy Is Dead: Get Over It - Homeland Stupidity
Dec 05, 2006
BLOGical Thoughts » Tuesday, 14 November, 2006
Peter Davey
Apr 24, 2007
Data miners are evil. Our government is evil. Lets rebel.
lisa forillo
Jun 10, 2007
I trying to figure out why I cannot get a job! Since I was fired from bank of montreal I have not been able to get another job! If anyone knows about an entity that someone used to blackball my name please let me know!
Ralf
Oct 15, 2007
It is anoying that this is already a business for some companies. We have to be careful with our laws, protecting us.