Your rights under direct assault

[FarmerD]

I couldn't believe this when I first saw the headline.  I guess it's too much to expect to have any privacy in your personal life anymore.  At one time I thought fishing expeditions like this were illegal but it's become commonplace now.  Obviously we're on our way to becoming a police state.


http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara ... -americans

[WiseOne]

We're not "on our way", we've been there for years already.  George Orwell had it nailed.

Frontline just put out a most excellent two part series on the NSA surveillance.  Toward the end of part 2, they suggest that what the NSA is doing is not such a big deal because Google and Facebook do the same thing already.  I disagree strongly of course - Google and Facebook can only show me ads, not arrest me or destroy my life.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... f-secrets/

[Jay-UMN]

It only makes sense that they want access to all medical records since they are the ones deciding how, if and what we will or won't get treated for given the move towards Obamacare....

[Pointedstick]

Frankly I'm surprised when a government or corporation doesn't already know something detailed and personal about me. That's just the world we live in.

[MachineGhost]

Frontline just put out a most excellent two part series on the NSA surveillance.  Toward the end of part 2, they suggest that what the NSA is doing is not such a big deal because Google and Facebook do the same thing already.  I disagree strongly of course - Google and Facebook can only show me ads, not arrest me or destroy my life.

I am all layered up with peerblock, adblock, donotrackme, https everywhere, noscript and google opt-out!  Whew!

I fear its not going to get any better in the future, but require more layers.

[ns3]

Frankly I'm surprised when a government or corporation doesn't already know something detailed and personal about me. That's just the world we live in.

You might be surprised to know then that the government has been going after corporations that retain too much personal information. I know this very well because the company I work for has been fined and we've had to spend a considerable amount of time and energy complying with privacy laws. Next to getting our systems hacked into, it's become our biggest concern (and the government is also on us about that).

I guess it's a case of what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander.

[WiseOne]

Highly amusing piece from CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/01/pf/data ... ?iid=HP_LN

HIPAA is a relatively recent and draconian law threatening huge fines and jail terms for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who leak patient health information even by accident.  It's resulted in a huge increase in computer security measures in medical practices that are an enormous drain on money and time, have made it difficult for physicians across centers to communicate about patient information, and that have definitely had a major negative impact on health care.  Have there been deaths or bad outcomes as a result of this?  You bet.

So the patient goes home after getting a diagnosis or prescription, and what do they do?  They run a Google search or use gmail to tell their friends what just happened.  Guess what?  Now Google knows all about your medical history, and they use the info to send you ads, or sell it to third parties.  HIPAA has nothing to say about any of this, of course.  Yes, there is a danger that this information could make it difficult for you to get health insurance or a new job in future, but mainly it's just kind of funny that HIPAA has turned out to be so easy to circumvent, and so utterly pointless.

[Pointedstick]

So you're telling me the government makes it borderline illegal for doctors to use your personal information that you voluntarily furnish them with to properly do their jobs that you're paying them to do, but has nothing to say if a creepy corporation takes the very same personal information without your knowledge and sells it to other creepy corporations for the purpose of selling you quack pharmaceuticals.

What a hilarious world we live in.

[WiseOne]

Pretty much.

On the less funny side...we should all be careful about google searching any topic that you wouldn't want a future employer to know about...either blow away cookies and log out of google, or use a public computer or something to run your search.

Of course, if you're 100% positive you will never again be on the job market, and that pre-existing condition riders on insurance policies are gone for good, then no worries for you.

[Pointedstick]

Even better, use DuckDuckGo instead! Totally anonymous and IMHO just as good. Better, in fact. Google's results are becoming dominated by ads and spam.

[Mountaineer]

ixquick is also good for a homepage/search engine.

... Mountaineer