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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Constant Reader who wrote (9076)	12/13/2002 1:38:34 AM
From: SmoothSail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

Back in the early 80s, I was working for one of the major software/systems integration/consulting companies. This was a time when the government started contracting out for major upgrades to their computer systems. Billions were being spent by all departments, IRS, FBI, CIA, in fact, most of them. The senior executives, (CEOs, COBs, COOs, from several of the more prominent government contractors formed an informal group to discuss the encroaching power and intrusion into the lives of Americans and to discuss what could be done to prevent it from becoming totally invasive to the point that we not only lose our privacy but freedoms as well. They knew 20 years ago that the day was going to come, the justification would arise, and the power of information technology would be used and then abused. They were truly concerned because they headed up the companies that could provide the tools to make it happen. And there was nothing they could do about it because they all wanted to win the next mega-contract. In the not too distant future, there will be one file on you that some little bureaucrat can access that will tell him/her everything about your health, every cent you've ever spent using a credit card, where you've travelled, with whom and where you stayed, what you ate, what you bought at the grocery store, what kind of clothes you wear, car you drive, furniture in your house, how it's decorated, the names of your children and pets, how much you drink, drugs you use, names of your friends, organizations you belong to, names of co-workers, education, tickets, arrests, credit, and much more. Then there will be programs to analyze all that data that will give a psychological profile of you and how soon you're going to commit a crime. That's what that database that Poindexter is in charge of is going to be able to do. And imagine the mega-contract that some company is going to win. And we're going to pay the government with our taxes to invade our lives. Ironic isn't it?