Much has been written lately about Julian Assange, Bradley
Manning, and Edward Snowden. Are they
guardians of freedom, rebels shedding light on the misdeeds of the war machine,
bearers of truth? Or are they traitors,
trying to score cheap points on the pretense of achieving a greater good?
My pet peeve, for many years has been the corporate spying
into the private lives of citizens. A
few weeks after I bought my brand new, 1974 Plymouth Duster, I received an
offer, and catalog, from Fingerhut, for custom, plastic covers for my 1974
Plymouth Duster. How did they know about
my purchase? I didn’t buy the plastic
covers, but the catalogs kept coming, month after month, and I continued to
throw them away without perusing through them.
I hate mail order catalogs.
Fingerhut spent a lot of money chasing my business. They could afford to waste money on me
because there were ample customers to finance their loss on me while turning a
hefty profit. They continue doing
business with their “buy now, pay later” approach to business. How did they know about my purchase and how
did they get my mailing address?
We all know the answer to that question. Business sells customer information to
business. I recently purchased a new
home. Within days I was getting phone
calls from Amerigroup Mortgage Corporation, at home where, I had a new phone
number. They wanted to refinance my mortgage loan. How did they know about my new mortgage loan
and how did they get my new phone number?
They bought my personal information from other companies.
Every time I go online, companies are tracking my movement
on the Internet. Websites will place
their insidious cookies on my computer, without my permission. What gives them the right to do so? I am a Facebook user. I enter limited information on my profile,
one of those tidbits is my college degree.
Coincidentally, ads appear on my Facebook page for schools that offer my
degree. How do those advertisers know to
target me for their products? I avoid
Facebook applications because of the disclaimer that Facebook will share my
profile information with the application.
Candy crush will use my profile information, not to play their game but
to sell me other goods and services that candy crush users are known to prefer.
There is outrage in this country about the revelations by
Snowden that the government has been spying on American citizens by collecting
Internet and telephone usage data, presumably under the guise of national
security. I have not seen a commensurate
outrage over the spying of American citizens by businesses who sell our
personal and financial information for the sole purpose of separating us from
our hard earned, accumulated wealth.
Why?
There are proposals before Congress to limit government’s
data collecting protocols. There are NO
serious proposals before Congress to limit businesses use of private and
presumably confidential information of its customers. Why?
I believe that Assange, Snowden and Manning are traitors
engaged in a dangerous game of “truth telling” and that their motives are
insincere. Manning took an oath to
defend the constitution of the United States against enemies, foreign and
domestic.” He violated that oath and in
doing so, he became a domestic enemy.
Snowden worked for the CIA, he had a security clearance and he violated
that trust. Assange is a hacker who
publishes official documents for personal gain.
I also believe that the practice of business spying on
American citizens is traitorous. How
often have you seen confidential disclosure statements? They are meant to protect the company, not
the customer. They will sell out the
customer for money and they will buy customer data to target their sales
strategies to most likely buyers. There
is no shame in this widely known and accepted business practice, and there is
no public outrage either. Corporate
spying on other corporations is illegal, kind like honor amongst thieves, but
corporate spying on me is “good business.”
Think about this the next time you use your credit card at
the supermarket. Corporate America will
know if you buy alcohol or cigarettes or advil or motor oil or jelly
donuts. Life insurance companies will
base your premiums, in part, on what you consume. They know who you are because you used your
credit card. You will suddenly receive
junk mail from pet stores because you purchased pet food. Yes, big brother is watching us.
Personally, I prefer to trust my government’s practice of
collecting my Internet or telephone data.
What will they learn? Who my
friends are? If I visit porn sites? My travel plans? I don’t care if they know that. However, I don’t want my banking institution
selling my personal and financial information to anyone else, and I don’t want
cookies on my computer. I can
rationalize government’s peeking into my smart phone as being for the greater
good to safeguard OUR freedoms. However,
I should qualify that it is an outrageous waste of public resources to throw
out a hugely expensive dragnet that should be more precisely cast on likely
threats. I cannot rationalize corporate
spying and intrusion for the sole purpose of separating me from my money. This spying, by the way, is condoned by the
very same government that just convicted Manning for espionage.
Define irony!
