How Close Are You To Your Government

Take this self-test, its sure to give you a wakeup call.

Imagine one aspect of your life, maybe a small one like what sort of foods you generally eat, and then try to figure out of that information could be easily enough discerned by even a novice Government Analyst working for existing information - that is accessible to the electronically.

Credit card or debit card transactions along with grocery store receipts held on store computers could probably tell me what you had for dinner last night. Your gasoline receipts will tell me where you went if your credit cards do not. Most of what you believe to be true could be ciphered out by just watching what you post here for a couple of days. Any good analyst could pick out your religious beliefs in about 10 days and tell if you were devout or not. Got a little something going on the side? Your spouse could find that in a month, the NSA could do it with one of your phone calls. Want to know what you got aunt Jenny for Christmas? Visa will tell.

The list goes on and on and on. I thought about it last night for a good bit and the only thing I could come up with that my Government might have difficulty learning about might be certain intimate conversations I have had with my wife. Given torture even those could not remain private.

This is what we have become.

clearance to work at Pratt Whitney when they were in WPB. I have worked in and around nuclear power plant facilities, municipal water plants and wastewater treatment plants. I have had clearance to work inside a military base. I can disagree with an administration's malignant dumb behavior, and still do a proper/excellent job supporting my country's infrastructure. That is just the way it is. Hoping for sane change is not a reason to be spied upon, have your privacy infringed upon or be considered a "threat". People who try to paint it that way need to go live in Russia as they say.

Putting EVERYTHINg on plastic and using those store promoted discount shopping cards are just terrible infringements on privacy that most folks never give any thought to. In return for that "discount" on selected items you are letting the store collect a LOT of information on your and your personal habits.

Think about this, if you go to the store and you buy a few day's worth of groceries, the store knows not only WHAT you bought, but can sell that info to people like--just an example here--your insurance companies.

If you have life insurance as a non-smoker they can find out if you buy smokes regularly (or at all.)

If you have heart disease and you buy a big old fatty cholesterol laden rib eye steak, they can find THAT out too.

If you did a stint in detox at any point they can find out if you buy mouthwash with any alcohol in it--let alone cooking sherry...

These are all just little things, but there really IS no guarantee that the grocery store company won't begin selling your info to your various insurance companies.

What if they started selling that info to lawyers?

You can't sue for malpractice on your heart doc because you eat a diet that is terrible for cardiac people. Your grocery habits are suddenly there in the courtroom with you.

Similarly, if you buy a lot of package liquor and then end up in some kind of auto accident where you are suspected of being drunk and causing the accident, suddenly, THAT is in the courtroom and in front of a jury. I doubt you could ever protest it because YOU signed up for that shopping card voluntarily...

I'm probably sounding WAY too paranoid here, but it just seems to me that with the informational mining abilities that exist now, it really is a TERRIBLE idea to expect any form of privacy with all the plastic we use.



Laura

I'd say we're pretty darned close.