There's no such thing as privacy. Get over it.

[many a good man]

Thus spake Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems in 1999. This is true on many levels. There is one word that is used to describe the amount of personal information about you that exists in private commercial databases: SCARY.

Even scarier, NSA has long had the capability of advanced electronic surveillance. Before 911, it is said the NSA was restricted to spying on Canadians and Europeans. It's not a great leap to suppose that the Europeans and Canadians have long been spying on us -- using equipment we gave them in a kind of quid pro quo. The big difference is now the NSA has loosed its shackles and is spying on us directly. This allows us to avoid having to share our cool new technology with others.

The scary technology used by corporations to capture "consumer" data is also shared with government - oftentimes legally. The corporatists in power now are taking this all to the next level. The Republican Party's voter database is likely bleeding edge in the information it contains and knowledge about the electorate, precinct by precinct, that can be gleaned from it. Their intimate relationship post 911 with AT&T and other telcos I'm sure gives them an irresistible temptation to use against political enemies.

We must resist all attempts to legalize the unconstitutional theft of our privacy at all costs - the Orwellian future it enables is too much to contemplate. However, if a known terrorist operative is calling American citizens then investigators should be able to get a warrant and listen in on the conversation. That is the sensible thing to do.

We should not overreact to sensible law enforcement activities that are done within an acceptable legal framework. The definition of what is allowable MUST be debated openly in public. There needs to be a vigorous public debate over ALL forms of information gathering - by both corporations and government. The technology in use has far exceeded the reach of our antiquated laws. The longer we wait the harder it will be to put the genie back in the bottle.

[shance]

1. The more one spies on you, the more power someone has over you.

Power abusers love to spy because they can learn everything about you - the more they know about you, the more they can learn how to harm you and/or control you.

Spying is simply a another word for stalking.

Spying is information gathering, which is just another term for accumulation of power over someone else through such information gathering.

[lonestarnot]

4. Resist.

[many a good man]

2. The nexis of corporate and government info gathering is terrifying

It's one thing to use consumer data to help figure out how to market more stuff to you; quite another when it is used against you for political purposes by authoritarian government. This issue needs to be at the forefront.

[lvx35]

3. An interesting anecdote:

In 1999, I detected a process running on windows 98 associated with MS messenger that was sending off encrypted data somewhere. I went online, and others had found it too. Somebody decompiled it, and the code had comments and so forth linking it to Sandia.gov, and some kind of massive processing software they advertized.

It may have been a worm with a hacker that wanted to make people paranoid to throw them off his trail, but I REALLY wonder how long a lot of this has been in the works before 9/11. This software (seisint stuff and so forth) didn't just magically appear in 2001.

[VP505]

5. "No such thing as privacy"

Might be true but that's no reason not to fight to keep what little if any we have and fight to get what we have lost back!!!

[alfredo]

6. And it's been that way for a very long time.

USASA veteran.
http://www.kagnewstation.com/

[nolabels]

7. This is more than just a privacy issue

In our ever shrinking world, this knowledge of all kinds of things are at stake, it is a heavy burden and needs to be safeguarded (which it isn't). The trip wire works both ways and easier to game the system by knocking the bricks over individually. Much security is gaged on and implemented in a process to to protect a large whole or a big institution. The gathering of all kinds of information makes for easy the destruction of anything when it is done by multi-faceted brick by brick approach. Think of the possibilities of what could be used and accomplished at many levels if you just had all the information on each individual :shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

8. I'll get over it by insisting that privacy rights be expanded and codified.

The government needs to be afraid of citizens, and private enterprise should fear customer/consumers.