Monday, April 12, 2004
Fly American Airlines and Receive a Free FBI Tour!
The Neo-Cons are watching.0 comments
Who are we kidding here?
This administration can't be bothered battening down the hatches whenever REAL terrorists growl, if the bad guys neglect to hand over the specific street addresses and exact times for their next deadly attack.
Memo Not Specific Enough, Bush Says
But they can use YOUR FEAR of those terrorists to find out all the info about you that they want to have. It just makes their lives so much easier.
American Airlines Revealed Passenger Data
Your privacy and your rights as an American citizen are kaput.
They yell, "TERRORISTS!", in a crowded business environment and every company that has or wants government bail-outs or contracts ponies right up.
The long-standing wall between governmental and corporate marketing information-gathering efforts can now be considered fully dissolved.
"Whattaya wanna know?" they ask. "Their shoe sizes? Yep, here they are. Every specific purchase they've ever made? Sure, no problem."
A major (overused) Hollywood screenplay plot device: Our Heroes on the run from corrupt government and/or bad guy types. Unbeknownst to Our Heroes, the bastards chasing them have been following their credit card receipts as they come in to track every move our plucky Heroes made.
In real life, we now have companies offering the Feds all their transactions with you, as well as ALL the information the company gathered about you as part of that transaction.
Of course the federal government—that font of privacy—turns right around and gives your confidential information to ANY OTHER COMPANY THAT WANTS A FEDERAL CONTRACT. So the U.S. Government has effectively gone into the Marketing Research industry and started selling sales leads. Oh Boy! More junk mail and spam!
They might just as well smear your private info across the bathroom walls in the Commerce Dept. building.
Or add a link to all your private quirks on the Commerce Dept. website. You're now that big a target. Hell, let's let everybody see. Y'know, Freedom of Information Act, and all that.
So, now we know everything about you.
What you've bought.
Where and when and how often you've flown in the last year. What class you flew in. Where you billed it to. How many people flew with you (oops, the wife didn't know about the secretary, did she? oh, well), what papers you bought at the newsstand, and thanks to the Patriot Act, what books you got out of the library to read on the flight.
Plus, thanks to your EZPASS sticker in your windshield, we now know just where and at exactly what time you crossed into and out of New York City.
From your credit account, we know at what parking garage you parked your car (of course, we also know your full financial picture from the info on your car financing package, which the bank happily gave us).
From your MetroCard (which you, of course, bought with your credit or bankcard from the machine, instead of with cash from the token clerk sitting right there; c'mon, admit it, you did that, didn't you?), we can now track all your travels around New York City through the subways and buses.
As well as any other purchases you make along the way, charged to your credit or bank cards.
You might just as well have a GPS bug in your shorts.
But we just can't seem to tell where those damn pesky REAL terrorists are. Damn!
Anybody have the address of the next attack?
Land of Liberty, my ass.
In God We Trust. All other get cash.
Pop Quiz:
When's the last time that your representative in Congress,
or your Senator represented YOUR interests?
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posted by Gotham 12:42 PM
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