Here’s a potential view brought to us by the ACLU of what ordering a pizza might look like in the future when we all have personal ID numbers assigned to us.
The ACLU website states:
Government programs and private-sector data collection are destroying our privacy, pushing us towards a 24-hour surveillance society.
We are facing a flood of powerful new technologies that expand the potential for centralized monitoring, an executive branch aggressively seeking new powers to spy on citizens, a docile Congress and courts, as well as a cadre of mega-corporations that are willing to become extensions of the surveillance state. We confront the possibility of a dark future where our every move, our every transaction, our every communication is recorded, compiled, and stored away, ready for access by the authorities whenever they want.
Anyone who’s paying attention knows that data is being collected from us everywhere, from the discount card at the grocery store to our credit card purchases and online questionnaires. (I do not use store savings cards. I ask at checkout if any of my items qualify for the discount. If they do, I ask for a “courtesy swipe,” and the store uses their own card. What I buy at the store is nobody’s business. It is one of my acts of defiance.) Computer cookies show every site you’ve visited. Your phone calls are potentially monitored and recorded. Pretty soon everything you do can be scrutinized and used against you.
I came across this video while reading Dr. Michael Eades’s blog about how the Know Your Real-Age test is just a data collection effort. The data you give them when filling out the questionnaire is passed to pharmaceutical companies who then look for telltale signs of disease and market their product to you via email. Sleazy is the right word.
I can’t imbed the video, so you’ll have to click the link. Please watch this video. It’s short, entertaining, and eye opening.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This pizza order flash file has been around a few years as a joke. It is interesting that the ACLU is using it on their web site with some false information
about the Real ID Act.
Now, don’t tease, Calvin. What false information is the ACLU posting about the Real ID Act?
I know the video is a spoof, but I didn’t know it had been around several years. I thought it was very funny.
Still, collecting all this data is possible, and the trend I see in government of enacting laws for benefit corporations to the detriment of the nation’s citzens leads me to believe this information could and is being collected, stored, and provided to the corporations that fund our government representative’s.