Government to Buy Your Personal Data From Companies
What’s the Latest Development?
National governments are increasingly less likely to collect personal data on identification cards because they will soon simply purchase your personal information from companies. A piece of legislation currently before the Congress, called CISPA, would allow such purchases among selected government agencies. “If signed into law, CISPA will allow the government to collect all sorts of personal data from corporations, without any oversight at all, and will protect corporations from lawsuits based on their handing over that data. Without hyperbole, it’s been called the death of the 4th Amendment.”
What’s the Big Idea?
While the government has been at the center of many debates over information and privacy, corporations have been allowed to collect personal data in a virtually unrestricted way (in exchange for free products, of course). “In a few years, the whole notion of a government-issued ID will seem quaint. Among facial recognition, the unique signature from your smart phone, the RFID chips in your clothing and other items you own, and whatever new technologies that will broadcast your identity, no one will have to ask to see ID. When you walk into a store, they’ll already know who you are. When you interact with a policeman, she’ll already have your personal information displayed on her Internet-enabled glasses.”
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