On-line Privacy Concerns Grow

[Lamplighter]

It's not the government, it's the advertising industry.
Why else would it have been handed over the Dept of Commerce ?

The ad industry has convinced every business person they must advertise.
Ad agencies have filled up almost every foot of publicly visible space,
and you can't look anywhere without seeing ads in one form or another.

So now they are going to track your computer ramblings
and present you with "opportunities" that were selected "just for you".
Cookies and FaceBook are their best friends, but cell phones and iPads work for them too.
The "find my iPad" feature on Apple's iPad has already been hacked for ulterior motives.

Corporations never die, so why should I think that databases ever get erased.
After all, my G-child's day care facility may some day be a key for selling high end golf clubs.

See, I'm only a little bit paranoid about databases

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

It's not the government, it's the advertising industry.
Why else would it have been handed over the Dept of Commerce ?

It was handed over to Commerce, to keep it away from Homeland Security & NSA, because that would generate immediate distrust that it's a national identity database.
This isn't about tracking for advertisers, they already have that well in hand, ask Google.
This is about coming up with secure a method, to be implemented by private firms, of online monetary transactions, to cut down on fraud and hopefully identity theft. Or at least the damage identity thieves can do.

[Lamplighter]

xoB, my post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek,
but also pretty much my thoughts about advertising, itself.
With regards to Merc's post and link to NY Times, they seemed
to be focused more on personal data than on $ transactions.

As a retired db programmer, I am interested in your remarks,
and would like to pursue those ideas if you still have a link to share.
My first reaction is along the lines of how ? to know who is the
person using the computer, cell phone, etc, at any given
moment that would be an advantage over the CC's or SSN's we use now.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'm using the link in Merc's post 5, which is CBSnews, I don't see any link to the NYtimes?

Very few are more paranoid about databases than myself, no facebook, linked-in, paypal, ebay, or any other online groups. Alumni groups have managed to find my mail address, but I don't respond. I also don't have a cell phone, won't use EZ-Pass, and refused GM's On-Star, if they want to track me, they're going to have to work at it.

That said, if I want to do business online, I have to use a credit card (I'm certainly not letting them into my bank account), and that means giving up some information, but I try to control how much, and to whom.

Maybe Obama & Co see the mega-banks, with their huge credit card networks, going down the tubes, and they're looking for an alternative verification system to keep ebusiness from being dragged down too.

[Lamplighter]

OK Thx, I was coming from Merc's #1 and had yet not seen #5