Slashdot Mirror
A Background of a 'Background Checker'
pamri writes "The Times of India profiles Jay Patel, of Abika, a firm that specializes in background checks, personality profiles, satellite or aerial Photos of any location besides other services in the US. It is now venturing into other countries including Canada and India.
Abika is already facing protests from Canadian Privacy groups for breaching the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act"
Hell, Google will do a damn good job of that. Hundreds of USENET posts and forum posts and website things, you can find most of my life out there on big ol' web.....
Of Ice, Snow and the Eskimo (Inuit) is finally succumbing to being invaded by Americans (for flu vaccine, for our natural resources, and now for our privacy). Oh great, we get to become the 52nd State!
;) )
(Iraq is 51st
People may be shouting about it, but what international laws prevent this? Espionage? Isn't that for state bodies though.
"It is now venturing into other countries including Canada and India. Abika is already facing protests from Canadian Privacy groups for breaching the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act"
So in other words. Privacy (getting around) is being outsourced.
Welcome to the Brave New World. Hope everyone brought an antacid?
Since they are not a Canadian enitiy, they are not bound by Canadian laws. As such, they are not accountable to any but likely much less strict Indian laws. So how does one deal with this? Either 1) Make whomever uses the service (in Canada) be liable, 2) enact international laws via UN or such, or 3) stick head in ground and hope problems go away. This is another problem that comes with being a global community.
I actually remember that the CBC did a piece on this topic. Here's the video.
Perhaps the reason why we know so little about each other is that people feel the need to sneak around and dig up dirt on others and then use that information against them? If you truly wanted to know more about someone, then open your mouth and ask that someone.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
I hate to be the one running around with a tin foil hat here, but I don't like this idea one bit. Although some see huge privacy implications in this, my personal reasons are more religious.
How long until each entry has an X, Y, and Z associated with it?
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
Other comments have said basically that anyone whose company's not based in country X doesn't have to abide by the laws of country X when acting within the borders of country X. Granted, aerial photos is a bit of a grey area, but within the concept that in order to take a picture of Canada to that resolution, you'd pretty much be intentionally invading Canadian airspace, at least in principle, then it's pretty much like jaywalking in Germany but saying that since you're American, you don't have to abide by German laws.
stuff |
If everyone knew everything about everyone else, or at least had access to such information, there would be less problems.
Name one that would be solved this way.
Besides, why try and hide things, when it is becoming harder and harder to do so?
Because I don't wan't everyone knowing a lot about me. I like people not knowing stuff about me. Particularly things like my income (why should anyone care buy me and the IRS), ex-wives, speeding tickets, where I live when I don't know them, who I talk to and a whole host of other things. If I choose to tell someone or post something on the internet that is fine by me. But I don't want them finding out info any other way.
At least when I submit to a government background check I have to give them permision first.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
"This is another problem that comes with being a global community."
No. This is a problem that comes from being shortsighted. A loophole in Candian laws could have created a similiar circumstance, irrespective of the global economy.
Lawson believes Canadian privacy law should apply to Abika since it is selling Canadians' information about themselves, but there are hurdles because the firm is based in the United States.
In the UK we have strong data protection laws as well. However, many companies that take our data make us waive the right by saying that we are aware that the data may be moved outside the UK (Bank call centres in India?) and our rights do not apply.
I guess that these may not have been tested yet and may be like click-through EULA that may not always stand up, but our privacy is being gradualy eroded away to whichever country has the weakest privacy laws.
Okay, so let me get this straight. A company is searching through and compiling publicly available information, and then making some TheSpark-style random conjectures based on these data?
Where is the expectation of privacy here? Do I have a (reasonable) expectation that data about me on the internet are private? Even my grandmother can tell you that that's ridiculous. This is the cyberspace equivalent of looking through my garbage, not breaking into my house. I hope this action falls on its face, because people providing information aggregation of all kinds are a very valuable, growing part of the coolness the internet has to offer and I want to encourage them in any way possible, even if it does mean that someone might know I bought a USB Christmas tree off ThinkGeek.
Two qualifications, though:
adam b.
select * from people where id=666;
creation science book
For example, borrowing a good example used here earlier, if you are a big Grateful Dead fan who goes to all their concerts and runs a website dedicated to them, you are a pot smoker.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
"Granted, aerial photos is a bit of a grey area, but within the concept that in order to take a picture of Canada to that resolution, you'd pretty much be intentionally invading Canadian airspace, at least in principle, then it's pretty much like jaywalking in Germany but saying that since you're American, you don't have to abide by German laws."
Er, no. Soverign airspace only goes out so far. That's why nations can have spy satellites orbiting the planet.
Comprehensive Background Checks, typically return Subject's Name, Aliases, AKA's Age Month & year of birth Date and Location where SSN issued. Others associated with SSN 22 year address/phone history B&W Satellite Photo of current location Nationwide Bankruptcy Search - Nationwide Judgments, Liens Search Nationwide Real Property Search Property Assessments Others listed at subjects address Possible Associates Relatives summary, names & phone numbers Voter Registrations Records Current Neighbors, Names, addresses, phones Court cases involving subject FAA registrations Drug Enforcement Agency Search FAA Airmen, FAA Aircraft Social Security Death Index Professional Licenses Internet Domain Ownership Corporate affiliations UCC filings (Business Loans) Aircraft Ownership Vessels Ownership Motor Vehicles, Motorcycles, Boats Ownership (FL, ME, MN, MS, MP, NE, NC, OH, TX, WI) Drivers License Info (FL, ID, MN, MO, OH, TX, WI) Concealed Weapons Permit (AR, FL, IN, LA, ME, ND, VA) Hunting & Fishing Permits (AK, AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, MA, MS, MO, MT, ND, NV, NJ, NC, OH, OK, UT, VA, WI)
It looks like IT hasn't been the only victim of offshoring. Who would have thought that BIG BROTHER would be outsourced to India too..and you can have all that information AND a psychological profile based on past actions for $140. It's like a credit report of your ENTIRE LIFE. I'm almost tempted to get one just to see why I get hired/turned down for the jobs I apply to.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...that was aired recently, the founder of Abika claimed that privacy is stupid and that he doesn't believe in it. In short, he declared his hostility to the very notion of privacy.
Perhaps it would be possible to publish some of his family's private information on the web to test his conviction that privacy is stupid. Perhaps this could be done in the same way that folks published some facts from Poindexter's private life as a response to the Total Information Awareness initiative.
Also, Abika's business model depends upon privacy. In other words, in the upper right hand side of http://www.abika.com, there is a "private, confidential, guaranteed" logo, which makes sense as Abika's services would be far less attractive to customers without such a guarantee. If Jay Patel really believes that privacy is stupid, then I challenge him to publish on his website the results of all background checks. More importantly, I challenge Jay Patel to inform the targets of background checks when checks are being performed and also of the identity of the requesters of the checks. After all, the major credit reporting agencies such as TRW are now being forced to report such information to the targets of credit checks, so why should Abika be permitted to operate any differently?
Basic Background Search (Public Records) (USA) $9.98
General Background Check (USA) $49.98
Comprehensive Background Check (USA) $69.98
Background Check including Psychological Profile (Includes Behavior History and more) (USA) $139.98
Background Search with Nationwide Criminal Record Search $99.98
Background Search with Statewide Criminal Record Search $79.98
Find / Locate this Person (Public records search only) $29.98
Verify Employment (each) $24.98
Verify Income $39.95
Property Search $24.98
Civil Court Records Search (each Court) $29.98
State Criminal Records Search (First Name, Last Name, DOB required) $39.98
County Criminal Records Search (each County) $29.98
Copies of Court Documents for criminal and civil court records $39.98
Police Reports, Accident Reports Search by County, City or License Plate Number $69.98
Search History of Employment (Public Records) (Searches Public Records and Work Databases) $49.98
Current Employment Search $149.98
Search / Verify Education & College Degrees $59.98
Find email or IM from physical address $49.95
Find Cell Phone Number, Address & Name from SSN $169.98
Search Date of Birth of this person $14.98
Search Possible Girlfriends/Boyfriends/Spouses/Roommates $99.95
Search Social Security Number $139.98
Search Utility Records (Trace person by searching Electric or Gas utility accounts) $79.98
Find Relatives (Through Public Records) $49.98
Search Family Tree Returns info on Ancestors $139.98
Physical Address from P.O.Box & Name $89.98
USA Nationwide Criminal Records Search (First Name, Last Name, DOB required) $59.98
Unconventional Behavior Search $89.98
Background Check for Canada (Please click on above link for info on this search) $119.98
Sex Offender Search (each state) $17.98
International Background Check (Each Country, Please click on above link for info on this search) $139.98
Medical Records $89.98
Statewide Marriage Records Search (CA, CO, KY, TX, ME, NV, FL) $24.98
Statewide Divorce Records Search $179.98
Statewide Marriage Records Search (Any other state except CA, CO, KY, TX, ME, NV, FL) $179.96
Find Person by their First Name & Age $39.98
Find Person by their Maiden Name $49.98
Sexual Orientation Search (Name, Address, DOB required) $49.98
Cheating Search (Relationships) (Name, Address, DOB required) $89.98
Verify Name, DOB from Picture (Checks if Name & DOB belongs to the person in the picture) $89.98
28 Hour Rush Delivery $39.95
My local county and many others around here make tax assessment records of private property available via the web.
In my case I could, without any requirements, look up the value of a piece of property and the value of improvements (ie the house), and the registered owner by address, lot/plot, or name. You can even wildcard these searches.
In two counties I checked you can search the past and present court dockets to see if someone has been in the system lately.
Of course non-government sources include any store with debit/cc or check acceptance. How many people actually tell their CCs via the CC companies terms not to share?
Privacy is an illusion anymore. Yes I would like to protect what little I have left but there is also credit to be given to the idea that if there is no privacy what would there be to fear that isn't already a problem today?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yea its been beaten to death but United States of Canada seems more likely than Canada becomming part of the USA :)
What was it he dug up on her that made her marry a sneaky bastard like him in three short weeks? And how desperately did he need his Green Card? Or is that "none of our business?"
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
More and more the technology for communications are breaking down barriers both physical and national. And it's precisely a "national game" that I see service providers like this playing more and more effectively. Previously it was just a megacorp that could set up operations in a foreign country, but with services become virtualized and products becoming not much more than information, even small fries can use their national benefits to provide what can't be gotten locally.
... to control all this potential with WIPO-like legislation and freedom-sapping rules.
What'll come next? Probably nations realizing that they're losing control that they thought they once had, and finally coming together. To globalize and equalize citizenship? Goodness, no
I don't care if someone scans me up and down when I travel. I do care when some stranger digs up all kinds of information about me and then confronts me with it. Especially when that information is used to paint a very incorrect picture of me.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Two forms of commercial-grade aerial photos... taken from satellite, and taken from airplane.
It's relatively cheap and easy to get satellite photos of around 1 meter resolution for almost anywhere in the world. You can get them from a company like Space Imaging. Two caveats:
1) the US government will often purchase the rights to "black out" an entire region of coverage. It would be next to impossible to get current air photos of Iraq or Afghanistan, for example
2) It can be tricky to get satellite photos from a specific time. The satellite orbits the earth and takes pictures in long, narrow bands. So, you have to pretty much take what you can get when the satellite is overhead, and hope there isn't much cloudcover that day. So, it's difficult to get time-sensitive data from a satellite provider.
As far as air plane photos, they would likely subcontract out the operation to a company already in the US or Canada. This way, you can fly underneath the clouds, your resolution is generally higher, and you can pick the date/time of your imagery. The downside is the cost - you have to pay some joker with his own plane and some expensive camera gear to take the raw image. Then, if you want to actually use the imagery in a mapping or GIS environment, you have to bend the image into a map projection with the proper coordinates defined.
The only other option I can think of would be to acquire the data from previously existing historical sources such as the USGS digital orthophotos, LandSat, etc. These have varying degrees of quality, and vary in availability from state to state.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Forget google, what about all those times in elementary, middle, and high school when teachers told us that "this will go on your permanent record"? I guess they really WEREN'T bullshitting us after all. :(
This is just data rape, pure and simple. This company is gathering vasts amounts of your personal, public and private dealings over several years and then peddling that information to souless private companies.
.They'll also bitch about how we have no right to privacy(while keeping their own records out of the public eye).
This is wrong pure and simple.
I don't question someone's right to have access to "specific" data about me. i.e my GP needs to know my blood type, the taxman needs to know my income, the pizza delivery boys needs to know my address. But the wholesale collection and amalgamation of every possible facet of my life by people who have no business knowing anything about me, disgusts me to my very core. No doubt Mr Patel wets himself over the prospect of getting access to embedded RFID telemetry as well.
Stalking is a crime. When stalkers are caught with pictures, diaries and details of people's whereabouts and dealings, this is usually used against them in a court case. why shouldn't the same apply to Mt Patel and his kind?
This behaviour is inexcusable. Noone needs to know this much about anyone else and those that do should be prosecuted. Persons and Companies should have the minimum amount of data possible on any one person. Data is on a need to know basis, and they don't need to know.
Of course, these dirty data raping fiends will argue on grounds of civil liberty(which they threaten), free speech(which they help to chill) and of course they play the happy smiley, "Our motives are purely innocent, you have nothing to fear" PR card, that will fool so many people.(That whole three week marraige story is probobly just a PR stunt)
Well guess what. I have a right to dignity. And if some private company starts selling off every minutes detail about me, every action I have ever done, every rumour, everything I've said or been remotely involved in, be it happy, sad, embarrassing, glad, hopeful, disparing or just plain private, to every slobbering data hungry slimeball that comes looking for it, I consider that a pretty big dent in my personal dignity pal! See you in court!
May the Maths Be with you!
This guy is doing it here, but as the off shore trend increases the information is going to become more available to potentially hostile foreign governments.
Manage it now or pay the price later. We're already paying the price with companies like this one cropping up. This is nothing less than domestic spying.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
How do you draw the connection? You have a web site? And Google sends you someone, so you assume some connection between that and recent job interview? And, how many job interviews have you had recently?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
At least from the perspective of someone living in a Untied State, none of the information available on the akiba website is all that private. My name is in the phone book, and in the yellow pages next to my firm. My house is much like others on my block so the value is easy to guess. Any crime I commit gets published in the local newspaper.
I gues the short of it is, everyone in town already knows all of this stuff about me. The akiba site does not appear to search small financial transactions in my bank, or library records, or magazine subscriptions, or letters I send to the Libertarian party's division of metal headware.
Also, it may be worth noting that clever lawyers now tend to include ambiguous values in deeds at the courthouse to foil searches such as this, like "sold for $10 and other valuable consideration."
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
...people providing information aggregation of all kinds are a very valuable...
Absolutely. Our information is guaranteed 99.87% accurate and your privacy is 100% not guaranteed.
I see here that you are a racist, homophobic, bastard paedophile who owes US$410-65 and Eur375-00 in unpaid parking fines and unpaid VAT. You seem also to spend 25.5 hours per day surfing white supremacist and golden shower sites. Your own site is called "Failed Islamic amputees are beautiful too".
If any of this information is incorrect, please contact your legal representative (after having paid the unpaid fines and taxes above), and any corrections may be applied (subject to further checks) no less than 18 months after receipt of your corrections and on payment of a $150-00/Eur225-00 fee.
to take a picture of Canada to that resolution, you'd pretty much be intentionally invading Canadian airspace
Sorry, not right. Since we are talking about satellites here "airspace" does not apply. This from a US Navy law page:
The upper limit of airspace subject to national jurisdiction has not been authoritatively defined by international law. International practice has established that airspace terminates at some point below the point at which artificial satellites can be placed in orbit without free-falling to earth. Outer space begins at that undefined point. All nations enjoy a freedom of equal access to outer space and none may appropriate it to its national airspace or exclusive use.
--- Tolerance is the axiomatic "virtue" of those without convictions ---
and PIP and EDA could have spelled PIPEDREAM.
Highly true, and good point.
I work on a popular WiFi/GIS site, and it is difficult to get free data of any time related relevance. TIGER is not very accurate.
How soon is it that there are free repositories of updated spatial data, and when does that cross the privacy line? How do we make sure others don't cross that line?
From our end, we've made sure not to associate APs listed in our maps from being associated wtih street adresses, and we hide MAC addresses from being displayed. We're making an effort to protect people's privacy while also having a useful application.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
If he's so against privacy, he won't mind telling me his credit card numbers...
I don't know much about this company, but normally i get supiscous, when the part of the companys web page is hosted on yahoo, geocities or something alike:h tm
http://abika.com/Reports/Satellitephotos.
Try the sample pictures...
I havn't seen anyone mention this yet, but this was the first thing I thought of.
Pay a couple bucks to this company, get complete background on someone, and then take over their life....you now know everything about them and their past, you don't even have to create things. This means that anything you say about your past can be verified as true.
The other thing that really got me going was this comment...
"Patel questions the need for restrictions on personal information, saying lack of data about people is what breeds fear and ignorance. "Most people don't care about privacy. It's the media that makes it a big hype.""
I'm sure that there are LOTS of people that care about privacy...why do you think we have curtains on our windows?
Zro . two
"I come from Canada...they say I'm slow....eh?"
presumably if it's a free market then we just sit back and let commercial organisations do it? Or do we ask our national governments to pass national and international legislation limiting data collection and data privacy? Or are there other ways to control who keeps data on us (apart from becoming some hardcore-retreat-to-the woods-with-ma-guns survivalist?)
I believe they can do this in India because we are sending all our information there for processing in the first place. Once it's there, it doesn't take too much to bribe someone to get those records.
There should be laws that prevent any company from sending US citizen's private information overseas (with a very broad definition of "private", to prevent abuse). This not only will stop this leak, it will also keep some jobs here (medical transcriptions, marketing and all "data mining" business as it relates to person's activity or credit).
hey moderators, have u ever heard amerika?
a more ontopic song i cannot recall
read the posts above
listen to the song
find your brain
sheesh
Ooops it appears our rocket accidently collided with your satellit . . .
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Abika the . . . P2P Search Engine!?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Countries that dont have a Data Protection Act like *cough* the USA need to get one, and countries that do need to add a clause to stop any stupid loop-holes. Oh and also kick people like Blunkett out who want to shit all over the DPA for no reason.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The guy sounds like a real creep, and now he offers services like "Sexual Orientation Check." Truly disgusting.
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
How soon is it that there are free repositories of updated spatial data, and when does that cross the privacy line?
It crosses the privacy line when you fly over Barbara's estate.
How do we make sure others don't cross that line?
Do not fly over Barbara's estate.
with a bill of rights and a Konstitution written at the aKademy?
There is a school of thought which says that privacy is only necessary to keep people equal. With ubiquitous monitoring, privacy would not even be something people would want. The usual privacy concern is that our secrets will be used against us. If someone knew I had a gold-plated toilet they would steal it or mock me.
With ubiquitous monitoring the theft of the toilet would be recorded and the information on the event would be available to everyone. Since I would also know the embarressing things about people who mocked me, I probably wouldn't mind getting teased about my fancy toilet.
The problem with lack of privacy isn't that our secrets aren't secret, but that it's one directional. Who watches the watchers? Privacy is like money. If some people have more than others it creates an imbalance which is open to exploitation (stolen gold toilets). If noone has privacy then exploitation is not possible because the playing field is level again.
I don't favor invasive monitoring, but I do support fully public two-way monitoring. I want anyone to be able to see me walk from home to the bus, and from the bus to work, and I want to have the ability to find out who watched me, and to call up video of them watching me. The technology is not here yet, but when it is, we will have to deal with it.
Run the full background check on every Congressman, Governor, and influential businessman around... send each one a copy of the report. We'd get a Data Protection Act real quick.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I don't know if I've misread, but to me it appears that they are NOT doing this from India. Abika is based in Wyoming, and the only reason as to why this was profiled in Times of India was because "Patel says he is writing this week to Jagdish Tytler, the Minister for Overseas Indians, offering his services in such a way that it can be done free for the neediest."
The Canadian law actualy says
So I'd say that pretty well covers web-crawling.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Pseudonyms allow you to build up reputation and reap the positive benefits of that reputation without suffering the negative effects of being one's self. If someone wants to contact you through your pseudonym, they can be ignored if they are merely spewing hate at you, but they can be responded to if they have something positive to say. And when you contact others, there is no need to let them know what pseudonyms you may use.
my spidey sense tells me you must have a mental age of 12.
Doctor Fun, 1996
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
If people are going to trust clueless searches of the Internet and archive material, start planting the stuff now that you'll want people to find later!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
From http://abika.com/help/help.htm:
Is my search request private? Will someone know if I run a search on them?
We appreciate your privacy, please be assured that our communication with you is confidential. We will not release your information nor will we send unsolicited email or mail to you. The only time you will hear from us is when you need our help. All paid searches are confidential.
The irony is thick.
We know what you want!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Did anybody else read that as the-Dirk-Diggler-dept?
Fnord.
To all those guys who tried to find out personal information about Cthulu. I hear it wasn't pretty.
I spoke with Jay a while back. He was looking at using us to install/configure an Insight (Email) server for him.
Sean Milheim
iDREUS Corporation
Wherever they do it, it is probably easier to get the data from India either way. The simple fact they mentioned doing this service for Canada and India is suspect.
If you are a participant in the free-market economy, then this is already happening to you. It's called CREDIT. And every lending body in the world has a way to do a query, specific to you, and find out whether you are credit-worthy enough for them to lend money to. That most certainly counts as the X, Y, and Z you refer to.
[Note, by CREDIT, I am not speaking of just credit cards. I mean *all* credit.]
"Of course, intra-bus cultural nuances get complicated once you extrapolate them to the Internet and get professional about all this snooping."
It's not just the professional nature of it, it's the fact that it isn't an exchange of information.
At least on the bus, you can reciprocate and ask your fellow passengers about *their* lives, experiecnes, etc. That *is* a way of people getting to know one another. Investigating someone while revealing nothing about oneself is a far cry from any sort of conversation.
Plus, in a conversation, you always have the ability to decline to answer a particular question, or to change the subject.
"Evil thrives when good men do nothing"
So someone has a big enough Greatful Dead obsession to put up a web page. Odds ARE that he's a pot smoker - or at least was.
At a med/large company, being tight lipped about yourself is a *must* if anything about you is remotely offensive to anyone. Tell 9 people who don't care, and you can be sure it will make it's way to the tenth who will stab you in the back for it. And if you hire someone despite the HR dossier entry that they are a probable pot smoker, then odds are you might be a pot smoker too. Why else are you defending them? People who defend pot smokers or probable pot smokers are probably pot smokers themselves.
Will you defend that candidate when the 10th person who likes to believe that the fact that they've never had a toke makes them superior objects to their being hired because of their dossier? You would have to argue that even though the odds are that the person is a pot smoker, that they will be a good employee anyway. Pot is illegal, making the person a probable, so the cards are stacked against you. And you don't want to appear TOO knowledgeable about pot yourself. Better to just drop the issue.
I never let any co-workers know anything about me if I have more than 10 or so Co-Workers. Even then, I am very quiet till I know everyone. But even someone you like and trust and would never intentionally say something to harm you might pass on the fact that you are a Greatful Dead Nut to someone that will use that to infer that you are a reefer addict and hurt you because of it. People don't think twice about passing on innocent information. That's why I only give them truely empty facts. Hobbies: Fishing, Cooking. Nothing that would give any insight into my personality or what I am really like.
I did. There's not much out there under my name that I'd find truly embarassing (and really nothing under another name either - guess I'm just vanilla). Anyone digging around for info on me would have to have a pretty good idea of what they were doing though, if only because of assorted and sundry ISP changes over the years.
fencepost
just a little off
You don't want to work for a company that would choose to employ this search, correct? You don't want to be in a relationship with someone who would pay someone to conduct this search on you, correct?
;)
Some prospective employees will benefit from these scans. Though they may never know it, a scan may be what saved them from working for the wrong employer. Of course you're not likely to apply to SCO (unless you're intending to bring them down from the inside), but for those other cases, there's now another means of selection which can take place in blissful ignorance rather than calculation. At the least, it's a little way to take some personal control of the situation. Help spare your conscience in a relatively easy way -- Destroy your reputation
In seriousness.. If you have the maturity to make your decisions one case at a time, doing this may take some important opportunities out of your hands. I mainly wanted to draw attention to the fact that though you may never know who contracted an intrusive scan on you, you do have the opportunity to craft a special message for them alone.
Imagine another blue state with the population of California. I doubt that the present administration would want that.
There are a couple of flaws in your theory:
1. Canada is fairly diverse--geographically, demographically and politically. Were Canada to become the 52nd state I'm willing to bet that it wouldn't be a blue state--it would be a swing state. In the last federal election Conservatives got almost as many votes as Liberals. Canada isn't Liberal--ONTARIO is liberal and the rest of the country is a mixed bag of other parites. In fact, if you didn't count Ontario then Canada would have a Conservative government. Even Ontario isn't solidly liberal the way it used to be (granted, our idea of "conservative" is probably along the lines of a McCain or Swartzenegger Republican)
2. You are assuming that if Canada were incorporated into the USA that it would bo one state. I doubt that having one state that is bigger in area than the rest of the American states combined would work very well at all. The argument that Canada has a sparse population is a weak argument for it being a single "52nd state" as well--The Canadian city I live in is 50% more populous than the entire state of North Dakota for example, and that works just fine as a state.
Considering these facts, Bush may be cool to the idea of Canada as a state in the union, he might not object to the incorporation of Alberta or western Canada as a whole into the US since it is relatively compatible politically and is home to the second largest known reserve of oil on the entire planet (Saudi Arabia is the largest). If our southern neighbours continue to get their personal liberties become eroded as they have been lately then such a prospect is looking less and less appealing.
In many ways, the article and various /. comments made here are a great reminder of exactly how much personal data some of us even WILLINGLY put out there on the web. It's not that way for everyone, but I'm sure plenty of /. users, for example, have done enough stuff on the net that someone could put together a pretty good profile of the person from a Google search and some simple digging into what's found there, without having to go into anything fancy.
Heck, I'm just thinking about what I've done, and wonder how much someone could pull up about me from everything I've made available. It's a little strange to think about.
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Abika.com for a complete profile of Mr. Jay Patel and post it on slashdot? :)
...which /.er can get the most background information on Jay Patel and/or all of his employees.
Let the games begin
I'd worry more about the microchip we implanted in you 3 years ago!
Mwahahaha!
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
(Posting as AC for privacy reasons.)
1) Jay Patel is an alias for Sanjay Amin. (More on this in a bit)
2) Sanjay Amin started out a company called Entropy Systems, which offered a perpetual motion machine to paying customers. This was after he defaulted from school loans at the University of Minnesota. (He left the university and the state due to some disagreements with the university about his engine)
3) Using the millions of dollars he bilked out of various people and organizations primarily in the Youngstown area, Entropy Systems disappeared and became www.abika.com, a site that offered free eBooks. See the Wired article for details about the transition.
4) After deciding that free eBooks weren't very profitable, Abika.com went through various transformations until it made it to its current state of being a background investigation website.
5) To avoid connections with his questionable past, Mr. Amin now goes by the name Jay Patel.
6) Abika.com sells a combination of reports from an astrology CD-ROM that Mr. Amin has, plus actual reports from private investigators that he re-sells (without a license).
So how about that, Sanjay? How do you like your privacy now?
Quis metamoderunt ipses metamoderatores?
Normally, that is, for most of human history, you know as much about people who know you as they know about you. You don't tell those you don't trust what you don't trust them to know. Normally the exchange of info, if any, worked both ways, and that's why you could trust them, or at least RISK trusting them. Your knowledge of them allows an equavalent risk/payback.
This dynamic still applies for today's friendships/relationships. Still applies where it matters. Trust is not always justified, but at least it's voluntary.
Now, it's whole new game. Some company/persons unknown to you who don't CARE about you or your info SELL it to somewilling to get unfair relationship over you... Quite different.
Consider this fantasy: some one want to know about you, you get to know equally about them. Someone wants to know your date of birth, you get to know their date of birth. You take my finger print for a driver's license, I get one in return. Etc. It's only fair. Anything unreciprocal is an invasion, quite new to human history; that's the way courts should interprete it.
Not sure where to take this... BUt consider, someone wants to look your ID, ask to look at theirs. Look them in the eye, human to human. Get at least that person to release that it's the only human way to be. Do the unexpected. Start them thinking. Get them used to the sensation.
Reciprocity is self protection. If you can't protect yourself, then the law has failed to return to you what you once had, the ability to protect yourself; nor does the law claim to protect you in compensation.
I get asked for id at computer shows, ever when free registration. I ask to see the counter persons id. Try it. Then work up to the police arresting you. And the judge...
By getting equal exchange of info , you cut down on all the not necessary collection of date. If you don't REALLY need my name to buy a train ticket, then you don't really need it, and I don't need yours... And there wouldn't be such collections of info laying around, in the pocession of people who don't really need it.
-- AC
On Abika's webpage there's a little link down at the left-bottom that lets you file a complaint against anyone, for any reason. Let everyone know how you feel about Jay Patel (not that it really matters, if you look on Google there's about 500 different Jay Patels out there).
In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.
if he doesn't believe in privacy, he will after that.
You'll regret saying that... :)
...pure in simple. You know, last I remembered was that an act of Treason warrants the death penalty.
I don't know about the rest of the slashdot gang, but I want a public hangin...Texan style
Life is not for the lazy.
More accurate response:
I don't work for people who do not stop beating their wives.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
This guy actually gave you a chance, and was willing to check that info right in front of you. Most don't.
HR and management these days is mostly about:
1. Avoiding responsibility, especially the kind that can spell "lawsuit",
2. Avoiding work,
You see "valuable" management advice all over, which basically boils down to "nah, just throw away half the applications, based on whatever excuse comes to your mind." It's less work.
Didn't like his email address? Drop the application. Didn't like the colour of his socks? "Thank you, interview is over." A couple of posts about guns with his name on them? (E.g., on a gaming board, talking about a game.) Gee, he must be one of those NRA crackpots, let's drop the application real quick. A couple of posts about using drugs in Fallout 2? (A computer game again.) Good grief, he must be a junkie IRL too, let's pretend we never even received that application. Someone from East Elbonia with a similar name posting some pro-communist crap? Surely it must be him, drop the application. A post defending the people's right to get married to whoever they goddamn please, even same sex? Gaah, he must be one of those sinners damned by the Lord, surely we don't want him in our company. Etc.
Most people don't even intend to do the work of actually sort through the mountain of google info, and put it all in context. They're just looking for an excuse to avoid work. They're just looking for that phrase, even if out of context, which cuts their work short.
You'd think noone would be that retarded and still get promoted to management, but think again. There are companies who hire based on Tarot or numerology. Even big ones. You can get your application dropped just because adding up the numeric values of the letters in your name, added up to a number they don't like. Literally.
And again, it's also all about avoiding responsibility. Confronting you about the data they found, is just begging for a lawsuit or press attention. What if they asked you about it and then didn't hire you anyway, for whole other reasons. Depending on what they asked about, it can be a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Patel is the number 1 common surname amongst Indians in America - there are actually so many Patels who have emigrated to America that the American consulates in India now do stricter background checks for any non-immigrant Patels trying to get a visit-only visa.
Jay is also a very common name - and not just amongst Indians!
It's no wonder that this guy, whose real name is Sanjay Amin changed it to Jay Patel.
> he said that they didn't hire pot smokers Well... Thats pretty much our entire physics department fucked then.
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
What is this "international law" that you speak of? And more specifically, who enforces it? Who should I call if I see someone violating this "international law"? Where might I go to read this "international law"?
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
This is critical to my business because if I allow a convicted axe-murderer to live in one of my buildings and he hacks another resident to bits, I'm looking at a nasty lawsuit. Such is life in America, I guess.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Isn't Wyoming full of independent-minded gun owners who value their privacy?
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,37963,00.ht ml
Turns out that before Sanjay Amin founded abika.com ("an online e-book retailer" according to Wired), he was busy defrauding investors with a perpetual energy source scam! Looks like Sanjay is all done with Entropy Systems (the name of company hawking said scam, founded by him in Youngstown, Ohio in 1994), but he himself is far from done defrauding the general public.
In the great CONS chain of life, you can either be the CAR or be in the CDR.
If everyone knew everything about everyone else, or at least had access to such information, there would be less problems. Besides, why try and hide things, when it is becoming harder and harder to do so?
What he says is true, but that's not how the world and his company are working. The problem is that large government agencies and companies can get things wrong and that goes on to hurt without you having any idea much less a chance to defend yourself. A truly open system would be good, you should be able to tell who said what about you. What we have now is not very good at all, hence the $150 that can be charged.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.