My daughter hires and fires people for her company and for other companies that pay for her services. Recently, she came to me with a story about a person that she wanted to hire for a client giving the applicant $150 per hour to program cell phones. She did a back grown check on the individual. She found out that the person had a DUI that made him ineligible for the job. She had to resend the offer of employment meaning that she could not be paid a bonus for finding a good qualified applicant.
Every day technologies are being used to monitor the people of the world with unprecedented scrutiny -- from driving habits to workplace surveillance. Shoppers and diners are observed and analyzed; Internet searches are monitored and used as evidence in court. It is big business that collects most of the data about us.
But increasingly, it's the government that's using it. According to the Washington Post, " The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." The Post's investigation is based on government documents and contracts, job descriptions, property records, corporate and social networking, Web sites, additional records, and hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and corporate officials and former officials.
The secret agencies and agency contractors have files on average US citizens gotten from public and government records. They have records on "Right of Center "members and associates of the "Tea Party" as well as members of the "Left of Center" groups. They take your ID from "eye scans" without your knowledge. They gather other information on US Citizens without violating the US Constitution.
"Big Brother Big Business," aired on CNBC and takes a look at the companies behind the powerful business of personal information and the people whose lives are affected by it, including: a woman who lost her job due to mistaken identity; a man whose cell phone records were stolen by his former employer; a woman whose personal information was stolen from a company she had never heard of; a man who discovered his rental car company was tracking his every move.
The documentary below also looks at how the FBI, the Border Patrol, police departments and schools are using biometric technologies to establish identity as well as an inside peeks at an AOL division that works solely to satisfy the requests of law enforcement for information about AOL's members. This is becoming an Orwellian Nightmare. http:nomoretyranny.org
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6061213358499552766
CNBC "Big Brother, Big Business" Recorded Nov 1, 2006
I saw this on CNBC. This was done in 2006. Technology has grown considerably and can do much more now than it could in 2006.
CNBC said, “I think it's important that people look at the technology and start to sense the fact that information is being collected. I don't think that a good news report leads to immediate conclusions. I'll let you be the judge of that. But! I will say that this is news in 2007, and everyone knows that sensations sell. So, should we be worried? What price are you paying for being well connected digitally in the post-information age? Who do you trust?”
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
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