Data Mining: Government vs. Private Sector
239 words.
Here’s something I don’t understand about the whole NSA wiretapping thing. Everyone is pretty outraged about the government collecting data.
But nobody seems to care if private businesses collect data on its customers (or potential customers). Every time you go on the Internet, someone is logging your IP. Every time you visit an ad-driven web site, someone is collecting data on your browsing habits. Every time you open your email, half of it is unsolicited spam. Every time you open your snail mailbox, 99.9% of it is junk mail. There is a whole industry devoted to buying and selling mailing lists. Everyone’s email address is being bought and sold all the time. Everyone’s name, address, and phone number is also readily available on the Internet. The value of your house and your neighbor’s house, along with disturbingly close-up satellite images, are readily available on the Internet. Persistent and/or unscrupulous folks could probably even locate property tax assessments, real estate history, social security numbers, public government documents, credit reports, and any number of other things on the Internet. Unscrupulous folks could also break into any number of online retailer databases and nab your credit card and personal information. And that’s just off the top of my head.
Personally, if I had to choose the lesser of two evils, I feel better about the government having my private information than I do about a bunch of money-grubbing Internet entrepreneurs having it.
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