Digital Citizen Problem

In the current debate, the control freaks and us lazy bums have largely confined the debate on "privacy", "terrorists", what's reasonable, what's needed to keep us secure as well as on the good old standbys of heroes and villains.

The totality of data collected by the government has been mentioned, yet the picture is not complete with at least talking about the "health" of the data and "future" data.

A friend of the K-Landnews told us about his Homeland Security file. He expressed surprise at how tremendously thick that file was for an individual who had had zero run-ins with the law beyond two or three street sweeping parking tickets. And no, there was no suspicion towards the friend. There was, as the friendly employee indicated, a certain suspicion about another person, and this suspicion was also unfounded.

Fox News did the easy "girl friend" or "prostitute" phone call metadata. That's a threat to a politician but there are much more dangerous threats that can affect you and me.

Data Health
The government has my credit card history and credit reports. They contain inaccuracies. Other data the government has are also inaccurate.

There was a 'second' me for some time on facebook. That Uberme made friends with people I have never heard of. Senator Lindsay "I have nothing to hide" Graham might or might not have been a facebook friend of Uberme.

To be honest, even Uberme would probably not have gone that  far to make powerful friends. If you have an Uberme on Facebook and you detect it, they will "delete" the data but you do not get a copy.

Mistaken identify can land you in a CIA Black Site, as happened to a German muslim. "Better surveillance" won't fix this because you won't see an investigator or an official until they take the black hood of your head.

An incorrectly typed name can mean you get arrested, and it happens more frequently than you think.

Over reliance on technology
Did you see the PBS report about forensics where a lawyer in Oregon was arrested because his fingerprint matched that of a suspect? Turns out, one fingerprint is not really enough.
Video evidence can be tampered with. Not every request for forensics will be allowed. DNA can be used to tie you to a crime even more easily than fingerprints. Lifting fingerprints and making silicone moulds is still a little bit of work, grabbing DNA is no work.

Stalker or getting framed
A friend of the K-Landnews had been in the crosshairs of a stalker for several years. Nasty comments popped up in the weirdest of locations on the web, for instance an Amazon book review about cooking. All of a sudden, there was an added "review entry" ranting about our friend. A number of blogs appeared with just a single page accusing our friend of multiple crimes.
To any normal person, reading a couple of these rants made it obvious that the writer had serious mental health issues.
Our friend shrugged it off - until the FBI knocked on her door for "a chat".
Our friend took it in stride.

Less paperwork in the future
You don't even have to forge someone's signature any more to become that person.
I am willing to bet the Susan B. Anthony dollar that less paperwork in the future will get some Americans into trouble.

Ideally, every citizen should get a yearly package of information held by the NSA, the FBI or whomever.

In the digital era, there is no excuse for not doing it.

Other than wielding power over you.

Secret courts should have no place in a democracy.