Study finds police recording license plates by the millions

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by vienna

Those of you who think the government is the "Big Bad" when it comes to privacy, remember you put out far more information than the government asks for in terms of social media, marketing ploys, and various electronic devices retaining your data, not to mention how many people are so eager and content to place their data in the "cloud". Think of all the information that used to held away from sight in locked desk drawers, file cabinets photo albums, etc., that is now in the hands of commercial entities over which, in the final analysi, you really have very little control.

There are time I sometimes think Orwell was an optimist...

<O>

Even if your like me and:
- don't engage in any form of social media
- avoid using personal information in just about anything you find online,
- the only data retaining device you have is your iphone which rarely see's itself tethered to a computer,
- and not only avoid, but have great disdain for "the cloud"

Even if you do all that and more, information about you can still be found online. Just google (which i'll bet provides meta data feeds to the NSA), "background checks". There's a plethora of websites that all seem to mine their data from the same place. Have you moved around a lot? Forgot that previous address you need to fill out some form? Fear not, you can find ALL your previous addresses, phone number (just in case you forgot it), known associates, and more, for a nominal fee, online, at your choice of a number of websites. Yeah, I got bored one day and tried track down myself. I didn't have to look very hard.

As careful as I am with real life data, I am astounded at how personal data i found on myself , and others I know. One key difference though, is the data I found, is more a matter of official record. My personal views and habits , comings and goings aren't there. The NSA has all that on file somewhere I'm sure.