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Barack Obama  |
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Rob Kailey is a working schmuck with no ties or affiliations to any governmental or political organizations, save those of sympathy.
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Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 10:06:08 AM MST
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| Now that we're paying attention to national databases of private information - thanks to the Good Guv's fight against Real ID - maybe we should consider the dangers of building such a system. Two recent BoingBoing posts illustrate the need for concern.
Arthur Miller, 1967:
The very existence of a National Data Center may encourage certain federal officials to engage in questionable surveillance tactics. For example, optical scanners - devices with the capacity to read a variety of type fonts or handwriting at fantastic rates of speed - could be used to monitor our mail. By linking scanners with a computer system, the information drawn in by the scanner would be converted into machine-readable form and transferred into the subject's file in the National Data Center....
These tactics, as well as the possibility of coupling wiretapping and computer processing, undoubtedly will be extremely attractive to overzealous law-enforcement officers. Similarly, the ability to transfer into the National Data Center quantities of information maintained in nonfederal files - credit ratings, educational information from schools and universities, local and state tax information, and medical records - will enable governmental snoopers to obtain data that they have no authority to secure on their own.
Miller also noted that information cataloged thusly is subject to malicious or accidental alteration, that the information could be stolen by commercial interests, or others.
Nineteen-f*cking-sixty-seven.
Maybe it's time to start advocating for a privacy amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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| Jay Stevens :: Arthur Miller vs. Real ID |
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