Fourth Amendment and corporations

[toddaa]

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The 4th Amendment has largely been gutted by the War on (Some) Drugs and the War on (Some) Terrorism. The Patriot Act killed much of what was left after the War on (Some) Drugs. But the danger we face in being secure in our "persons, houses, papers, and effects" is also threatened by information clearing houses like Lexis/Nexis and internet companies like Google and Facebook.

How do we reign in these private corporations power? There are proactive things you can do, like using anonymous accounts, strong encryption and proxies on the internet, but they can easily be compromised. We must start by restoring the 4th Amendment's limitations on the government, but we must extend it to corporations.

Ideas?

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. One thing that I noticed about using bogus accounts to try to protect anonymity..

They still know who you are.
They just know you as your alias. Or your collection of aliases. And assortment of IPs. And credit cards. Do you really think that GOOGLE, hasn't figured out a way to link anonymous browsers with their true owner and would it matter if they didn't? If you use the same proxy every day, then whammo. You're known as the proxy. They're still collecting data about your browsing and shopping habits and tracking your movements across the web. And they know you like the feeling of browsing anonymously which is why they (google) came out with their own proxy.

Agree with restoring the 4th ammendment tho.