Culture

Keeping Track of You

This entry was posted in Culture Information Law Enforcement Privacy on by

You are being monitored:

It’s hard to travel incognito these days. As you go about your business, you leave a trail of data for others to collect, merge, mine, analyse and even sell, often without our knowledge or consent. And we are increasingly subject to electronic or visual surveillance, often without our knowledge or express consent.
At the bottom of the linked article is a hypothetical one day data capture timeline. Read it and be comforted….
I take a pretty basic position on personal information privacy. All information gathered by any entity about an individual must be kept private unless the individual specifically authorizes the release of that information. No exceptions. Penalities for unauthorized disclosure should be high.
So, with the above constraint, I think it is just fine for Safeway to keep track of my buying habits and, if they have my permission, to disclose this information to third parties.
And, no, I do not think it reasonable to grant governmental entities an exception to this. They should have to get my permission to disclose information that they have gathered.
Thus, none of these entities, government or private, would get to disclose information in response to any kind of subpoena without the target individuals permission.
Meanwhile, use cash when you can.

Live Strong

This entry was posted in Culture Health Care Sports on by

yellow_band_b.gif
Wear Yellow! Order wrist bands at the Lance Armstrong Foundation. They are currently backordered but order now!
Update (8/28/04): Changed the word ‘here’ to Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Update (9/28/04): The Lance Armstrong Foundation is again taking orders for bracelets with a delivery lead time of 3-4 weeks. Go place your order!!
Update (02/11/05): Lance will be on the Oprah Winfrey show today. Check your local listings for time and channel.
Update (07/02/05): The 2005 Tour has started! Order your LIVESTRONG wristbands from the the Lance Armstrong Foundation now. Buy 10 or 100 and give the extras to others. If you can’t afford to buy them yourself join together with some friends to make your contribution.



Senatorial Quality

This entry was posted in Constitution Culture Federalism Libertarianism Republicans on by

Rick from Radically Inept had a bit of time to watch the marriage amendment debates on C-SPAN today. It was an educational experience:

Oh, I can’t resist this observation from C-SPAN today. I caught a few minutes of the senate debate on the ‘our government should define marraige in our contitution’ act. I got to see U.S. Senator Rick Santorum-Pennsylvania say that the `Federal Marriage Amendment’ had bi-partisan sponsorship because, get this, Senator Zell Miller, Democrat from Georgia is a co-sponsor. Which, as we all know, is the truth on the surface, but look at how his voting pattern rates.
Oh, then Santorum made the idoitic statement “marriage as defined in the constitution.” I would have hoped that a senator, especially a republican senator, would have read the Constitution by now.
And santorum has actually sworn to uphold the Constitution. Yeccchh.
Update (7/13): Norbizness has some more examples of the high quality of this debate.