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Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases?
Anonymous Nerd writes "I was looking at Fox News today and came accross this gem of a story . It seems the Pentagon wishes to create a massive database of every transaction made in America. I wonder how they plan to track purchases made with cash?"
SHHH...the thought police will hear you...
it just gets worse and worse ever day...
Also, look who is working on it...someone really really trustworthy with all of my information:
Rear Adm. John Poindexter, former national security adviser to President Reagan, is developing the database under the Total Information Awareness Program. Poindexter was convicted on five counts of misleading Congress and making false statements during the Iran-Contra investigation.
--"The revolution will be simulcast..."--
Hi all, im surprised that slashdot didnt post this sooner but the bill for the Homeland Security carried a provision to make
4 SAFI.h tml
every transaction
1. credit card
2. phone call
3. email
4. vacation
5. any bought
go into a massive database.
From what I understand this has now passed into law!
The funny part is that the sponsor of this part of the bill is the same dude who master-minded the iran-contra affair.
Anyway, what's funny is that there was a small outcry in the nytimes "You are suspect"
you can read it here
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/opinion/1
anyway, I'm surprised no one else has mentioned. Perhaps it was one of those 'They couldn't, could they?" reactions to the whole idea that know paid serious mind to it and now its law.
Sigs are dangerous coy things
...story from last week. Jesus fucking christ on a biscuit. Do the editors even READ Slashdot? If they did, they'd know this was reported Nov 9th and by the same fucking editor.
So whose more retarded - Michael or Timothy?
Krelnik is right, of course. And this is no joke. It's a huge (anti-)civil liberties story.
At the 11th hour the proposal got tacked on to the Homeland Security bill about to clear Congress, despite vocal protests from parties ranging from the EFF to William Safire.
It's too late to stop this from becoming law now. To borrow a phrase from LBJ, this bill is going through Congress like a dose of salts through a widow-woman.
I wonder how they plan to track purchases made with cash?
Outlaw cash transactions.
I wish that that were actually funny. I'm assuming that we'll start to see just that, with certain types of purchases (such as airline tickets) only being allowed through some electronically trackable means. This administration means business and they have repeatedly shown that they are entirely willing to do things that would have been dismissed as ludicrous less then a year ago.
Yeah, yeah, "Good for all debts public and private". Whatever. Stop thinking that your standards are theirs or, in fact, that illegality or irrationality make something impossible.
The Homeland (yeah, right) Security Act has plenty of provisions that most of us would dismiss out of hand in any other context.
The White House is very, very serious indeed and they are the progeny of Iran-Contra, the Watergate break ins, and a hundred other proofs that, yes, they can get away with it.
No games anymore, folks. Simulation is over and this is certainly not a drill.
So, any estimates on how soon they go after any successor to Beanz and the like for being too transferrable and not trackable enough? Any predictions on how many anonymizers for purchases we're going to see? Since credit card anonymizers for porn are under attack the game is already under way.
I predict a system cropping up where you can walk into a storefront and buy a "corporate credit card" with an anonymous name or equivalent and a predeposited balance. Say, a $500 card made out to Joe Foobar with a confirmable balance. Use up the balance and either throw it away or go to any branch and put more cash into this identity. No questions, no ID needed, no fuss, no muss. I'm betting that one of the pawn shop companies currently going national (there are several) will get into this and that they will start having spammer-style constant swapping to new Visa or MCd providers. I'll also bet that this will become illegal within three years and keep existing under a succession of forms. Further, I'll bet that we're going to start seeing a serious increase in Americans with foreign bank accounts that come with credit cards. Sure, I've got a Visa; Bank of Rome, thank you very much.
Yes, cyberpunk is ever more real by the day and I fucking HATE IT. But I'm not going to be stupid enough to deny that it is happening.
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.