You're being watched ...

[Jara sang]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-donohue12jan12,1,3860067.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

By Laura K. Donohue

CONGRESS WILL soon hold hearings on the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, secretly authorized by President Bush in 2002. But that program is just the tip of the iceberg.

Since 9/11, the expansion of efforts to gather and analyze information on U.S. citizens is nothing short of staggering. The government collects vast troves of data, including consumer credit histories and medical and travel records. Databases track Americans' networks of friends, family and associates, not just to identify who is a terrorist but to try to predict who might become one.

{snip}

Your checking account may tell which charities or political causes you support. Your credit card statements show where you shop, and your supermarket frequent-buyer-card records may indicate whether you keep kosher or follow an Islamic halal diet. Internet searches record your interests, down to what, exactly, you read. Faith forums or chat rooms offer a window into your thoughts and beliefs. E-mail and telephone conversations contain intimate details of your life.

A University of Illinois study found that in the 12 months following 9/11, federal agents made at least 545 visits to libraries to obtain information about patrons. This isn't just data surveillance. It's psychological surveillance.

Many Americans might approve of data mining to find terrorists. But not all of the inquiries necessarily relate to terrorism. The Patriot Act allows law enforcement officers to get "sneak and peek" warrants to search a home for any suspected crime — and to wait months or even years to tell the owner they were there. Last July, the Justice Department told the House Judiciary Committee that only 12% of the 153 "sneak and peek" warrants it received were related to terrorism investigations.

[PWRinNY]

1. National ID cards coming

Just think of the enormous database with all this private info on each of us. Frightening. Medical records. Buying habits. Political party. Kids, pets, EVERYTHING. Don't think it won't happen. It's coming.

[1620rock]

3. ...yep, machine readable bio-metric data coming to...

...U.S. drivers licenses, and. passports (with more machine readable bio-metric data) will be required for visits to and from Canada (and anyplace else) coming January 08. "1620rock" Dept. of Homeland Security. :scared:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. You know they haven't factored in the data entry error rate...

For all you freepers out there, who think this is OK, because you would never commit a crime; google your own name (or versions of it)... see how much of what you find is accurate.

[cornermouse]

2. Meet the KGB on steroids and microchips.

And kiss your freedom goodbye.

[Swamp Rat]

4. It has already happened.

Not enough prisons and brownshirts yet.

[Petreader]

5. I'm already being watched

I have discovered "military cookies" on my computer, and heck, I just joined DU....

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. yeah . . . I just joined a few weeks ago . . .

Should be interesting next time I try to board an airplane.

Oh well, fuck 'em. They haven't figured out how to keep people off trains and out of their cars . . . yet.

[demgurl]

8. How do you detect military cookies? eom

[Petreader]

10. I don't know exactly

but when I run a spyware detection program I have called Spy Sweeper, it comes up with a full list of adware and cookies that have been "involuntarily installed".

Most of these relate to installing pop up ads, a virus or trojan horses, and attempts to hijack information off one's hard drive. Some of those cookies are simply labeled "military" by the spyware.

I am only assuming that these cookies are coming off some web site I go to, and the government is trying to get some kind of data on me.

[texanwitch]

13. I have several spyware programs I run, Spy Sweeper is great.

There is window washing software that is also good to use, run you spyware software often.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. Welcome Petreader!

[Petreader]

11. Beware!

I have a sharp pointy stick I can jab in your eye, the same one I use when Cyclops's try and attack!!

[CrazyOrangeCat]

12. you will go far here . . .

;)