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Chapter 1:- The Letter
The Letter
Kiss Your Privacy Goodbye
By Eli Johanssen
Your privacy and mine is fast going the way of the Dodo.
There was news of a government agency giving an airline company private information on half a million citizens of the US to assess terrorist risks. This was cross-matched with the passenger lists and information from the national census to find ‘anomalies’.
Place that into a landscape of political correctness that has run wild for far too long and you have a formula for disaster. What we think, right or wrong, can be known and dealt with before a person has the chance to stand up and shout an opinion.
Though there has been quite a bit written about the amount of data-trafficking, cross-referencing and information-sharing going on around the globe, it is having no effect.
A recent Public Television special on The Invasion of Privacy was scheduled opposite the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Special, diminishing the show’s impact. An award-winning novel on the same subject, the loss of privacy, shot up the best seller’s list only to be dismissed as ‘entertaining fare’ by hired guns posing as critics.
The business adviser to one highly placed official wrote an extensive paper regarding the legal ramifications of technical information gathering. He was appalled at the amount of information that could be casually gathered on someone in a single day with a common home computer; much of it unauthorized. Is the data true? Some of it perhaps, and some not – but if it is found at all, it creates a technology leak that is too big to plug.
The point is, you can kiss your privacy goodbye. There is no such thing as a secure server. Identity theft is almost a non-crime considering how easy it is. What you do and where you go, especially online, is common knowledge and a simple cross-referencing program is all that is needed to establish a pattern.
Have you taken part in a survey online? Did it ask for your preference in perfumes, books, political parties or television shows? Have you filled in a woman’s magazine questionnaire to find out if you are attractive to the opposite sex or ‘fit the profile’ of an eligible mate? You are providing information that is traceable to you and can become part of a database later to be used against you.
For many years, advertising and marketing surveys have gathered information for the purpose of discovering what we buy and why. Now the technique is being extended to our schools, "psychographic surveying" in order to find out what the kids are thinking as a reflection of what the parents are thinking. Your information leak could be your five-year-old.
How was this witches’ brew made? First, a broth of personal information is put into the pot: name, address, phone, age, weight and mother’s maiden name. Then add opinions, preferences and feelings – using surveys and questionnaires from school, posing as academic tests. Include more data from online sites and consumer magazines, cross-referenced public and private records, checking account and credit card spending patterns. Now stir well with a mathematical logarithm to predict reactions, individual and group, to hypothetical situations and find common areas of agreement among political, religious, demographic and socioeconomic groups. Voila! Profile Stew: complete with the name and address of those most likely, in our computer's ‘mind’, to commit a crime of a politically incorrect opinion.
Every piece of personal information you possess is available, along with the presumed capability to evaluate your state of mind and that of your child. Also under evaluation is the little tyke’s fitness to serve in the military in future years, his potential to be a contributing member of society and his parent’s ability to properly raise children – as well as his parent’s potential predilection to tax evasion. Your tax dollars at work!
Are you concerned that the government or some lesser agency might be assembling a dossier on you right now, prying into every possible corner of your existence?
Again, too late! That ship has sailed! The files are already being assembled with arrangements being made to put the information on a microchip and embedded inside you, complete with GPS tracking. But that is another story entirely.
The Letter
Kiss Your Privacy Goodbye
By Eli Johanssen
Your privacy and mine is fast going the way of the Dodo.
There was news of a government agency giving an airline company private information on half a million citizens of the US to assess terrorist risks. This was cross-matched with the passenger lists and information from the national census to find ‘anomalies’.
Place that into a landscape of political correctness that has run wild for far too long and you have a formula for disaster. What we think, right or wrong, can be known and dealt with before a person has the chance to stand up and shout an opinion.
Though there has been quite a bit written about the amount of data-trafficking, cross-referencing and information-sharing going on around the globe, it is having no effect.
A recent Public Television special on The Invasion of Privacy was scheduled opposite the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Special, diminishing the show’s impact. An award-winning novel on the same subject, the loss of privacy, shot up the best seller’s list only to be dismissed as ‘entertaining fare’ by hired guns posing as critics.
The business adviser to one highly placed official wrote an extensive paper regarding the legal ramifications of technical information gathering. He was appalled at the amount of information that could be casually gathered on someone in a single day with a common home computer; much of it unauthorized. Is the data true? Some of it perhaps, and some not – but if it is found at all, it creates a technology leak that is too big to plug.
The point is, you can kiss your privacy goodbye. There is no such thing as a secure server. Identity theft is almost a non-crime considering how easy it is. What you do and where you go, especially online, is common knowledge and a simple cross-referencing program is all that is needed to establish a pattern.
Have you taken part in a survey online? Did it ask for your preference in perfumes, books, political parties or television shows? Have you filled in a woman’s magazine questionnaire to find out if you are attractive to the opposite sex or ‘fit the profile’ of an eligible mate? You are providing information that is traceable to you and can become part of a database later to be used against you.
For many years, advertising and marketing surveys have gathered information for the purpose of discovering what we buy and why. Now the technique is being extended to our schools, "psychographic surveying" in order to find out what the kids are thinking as a reflection of what the parents are thinking. Your information leak could be your five-year-old.
How was this witches’ brew made? First, a broth of personal information is put into the pot: name, address, phone, age, weight and mother’s maiden name. Then add opinions, preferences and feelings – using surveys and questionnaires from school, posing as academic tests. Include more data from online sites and consumer magazines, cross-referenced public and private records, checking account and credit card spending patterns. Now stir well with a mathematical logarithm to predict reactions, individual and group, to hypothetical situations and find common areas of agreement among political, religious, demographic and socioeconomic groups. Voila! Profile Stew: complete with the name and address of those most likely, in our computer's ‘mind’, to commit a crime of a politically incorrect opinion.
Every piece of personal information you possess is available, along with the presumed capability to evaluate your state of mind and that of your child. Also under evaluation is the little tyke’s fitness to serve in the military in future years, his potential to be a contributing member of society and his parent’s ability to properly raise children – as well as his parent’s potential predilection to tax evasion. Your tax dollars at work!
Are you concerned that the government or some lesser agency might be assembling a dossier on you right now, prying into every possible corner of your existence?
Again, too late! That ship has sailed! The files are already being assembled with arrangements being made to put the information on a microchip and embedded inside you, complete with GPS tracking. But that is another story entirely.
