Beyond the issue that we have with the prying eyes of the police and homeland insecurity, we have the government's willingness to sell our information to anyone that wants to buy. Of course it is not anyone, but any corporate entity that can convince them that money paid to the government is more valuable than the privacy of the citizens.
This may be more of an acute problem at lower levels of government than at the state and federal level, but I tend to doubt it. I see the stuff down here at the bottom more clearly. At the state level I know that the DMV buys and sells information about drivers to anyone who will pay. Insurance companies; credit agencies (TRW, Equifax, etc); banks; and prospective employers. Not only is there an issue with the dissemination of your personal information, but also with the accuracy. We are not just talking about your driving record, but extending into anything that you own that has an engine (those that need registration) and anything that relates to it. What you paid, who has the loan, every address that you've ever had, personal information on co-signers, it is an endless list. The DMV is just the worst-case scenario. Clerk's offices all around the state are looking for ways to make money by selling data. Data is all they have, and their fees for collecting data are set by the state, but the state does not set the price on selling data. Clerk's support and defend their little gold mine with statements like, "This is public information and the public has a right to know." Hog wash! Can we develop something in the STATE platform that counters this? paul
