Will the Real Big Brother Please Stand Up

[Ice]

With all the worrying about the government no one is thinking too much about the commercial activity that accounts for the vast majority of the surveillance being done.

Maybe we should concentrate our efforts on those commercial entities that claim the "government" or "policy" requires them to get all that information.

When was the last time you took part in a survey and how much info did you give away?

What say you all?

Personally Ice.. I never do surveys... I always tell them to go suck an egg.

Jerry

A simple question of "what is your name" has far and reaching implications.

If they ask for your "address" you can bet that you are going into another database.

Might as well give them bogus information, to gum up the works.

Memorize the "Mayor's" "Address." (And his ss# too)



Henry Franklin

[charlesa6]

No time to be mesmerized with survey. No!!!

[Ice]

When was the last time you signed up for anything? Opened any kind of account (including gas, electric, phone, etc.), visited your doctor, etc.

Every time you give any commercial entity info, like when you go to the hospital, your information is no longer private.

There was a woman that received a letter from a lawyer asking if she wanted to take part in a class action suit involving a certain drug used for a specific illness. She has no idea how this lawyer knew she had the illness or was taking the drug. He got her name from a "mailing list", the guy that sold him the list doesn't even know how the "illness" became a part of it... but he's looking into it.

The thing is, the government is restrained by the law and these commercial entities don't need "court orders" to obtain this private information. Why? BECAUSE YOU GIVE IT TO THEM!!

If the government really wants to keep tabs on you... all they gotta do is purchase a mailing list for a specific target group and they'll have all they need... and it has all been provided by the "public sector" "commercial entities" that you have "given" your info to.

Ice

[charlesa6]

Absolutely right on target, Ice. I never thought about that at all.

[brozer5]

It (the book of lists for sale) was as big as a large phonebook.

[mikah2k]

I believe top real estate investors buy lists for targeted mailings. The lists tend to be expensive unless your marketing campaign is successful.

Anyway in any local real estate brokerage office, there exists a book (updated regularly) that lists folks in the neighborhood (I believe within the county), where the folks work, how much they make, how many children they have, what their education level is, etc.

So I agree that private sector has all the goods already.

[Freetalker]

Who s the Real Big Brother?
I don't think even THEY know the answer to this. Ever since 9-11, and the implimtation of the Patriot Act, information gathering has been rampant, and the ones who have and control this info are private companies, with little or no oversight, or checks and balances ever applied to them. The biggest culprit has to be Acxiom.
http://www.acxiom.com/

Acxiom is a customer and data information management company, offering a range of products and services including information technology outsourcing.

Founded in 1969 under the name Demographics by Charles D. Ward in Conway, Arkansas and later headed by Charles D. Morgan, Acxiom is currently headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company has opened offices in Chicago, Illinois, Phoenix, Arizona, New York, New York, San Mateo, California and Nashville, Tennessee. There are also international offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Australia, and China.

It has been described as "one of the biggest companies you've never heard of." [1] In addition to collecting detailed information about people, they also predict the futures of these people to help with marketing, according to the documentary "The Persuaders." There are 70 types of consumers according to this corporation.

(From Wikipedia)
I recently read a book named "No Place to Hide" by Robert O'Harrow, Jr. (2005) This book not only opened my eyes to the fact that we really do not have any place to hide from these vultures, but they are pushing for a thing they call "Total Information Awareness." No need to hide info from them, they already know each and everything about you. The only way I can see to end this is to destroy their computers one by one, by hacking or other means. They have us bu the balls on this, and they did it behind our back, under the guise of GWB's P.A. Read the book, if you can, it's a eye opener.