If you thought the rabbit hole wasn't deep enough, check out what private companies are doing without government...

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If you thought the rabbit hole wasn't deep enough, check out what private companies are doing without government oversight.

Viva la capitalism!

Originally shared by John Pozadzides (John P.)

Ever Feel Like You're Being Watched? You Are.

Hey folks,

The NY Times published a story four days ago detailing how retailers are now using several technologies to identify and track shoppers and their behaviors in stores.

-- Video cameras are being linked to facial recognition systems to watch you as you walk through (I almost used the word 'spy')

-- Devices are identifying you by WiFi or cellular signals emitted from smartphones

-- Vendors are selling data including gender, age and income information about you to retailers

These systems are being deployed to track us and archive data about us without our consent, and without the knowledge of the general public.

Meanwhile, people are up in arms about the NSAs use of systems that are in some ways arguably less intrusive (at least they aren't tracking your physical whereabouts), and we even have all sorts of laws to protect our personal information such as HIPAA (http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/), The Privacy Act of 1974 (http://www.hhs.gov/foia/privacy/), and various state and local laws.  

The problem is, none of these laws protect us from PRIVATE agencies doing the exact same things.  In fact, it would be perfectly legal under current US laws (as I understand them) for Amazon, IBM, MasterCard and other big data owners to form a consortium to aggregate all of the data they have about citizens and use it in any way they see fit.

For example, although HIPAA laws prevent doctors from releasing any medical information about patients, Target is free to use their high definition cameras to record shoppers as they come into the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions - even as those prescriptions identify information that would otherwise be illegal to gain access to.  This practice is the same as looking over someone's shoulder as they type their PIN into an ATM machine.

So, if you ever worried that you were being watched in public - you're not paranoid.  You're right!  So, what do you actually think about that???

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