Thursday, June 13, 2013

Okay -- privacy is dead. But how about a trade?

Last week it was the NSA scooping up phone records and the traces of our internet activity. Today it is local cops filing away records of our DNA:

Slowly, and largely under the radar, a growing number of local law enforcement agencies across the country have moved into what had previously been the domain of the F.B.I. and state crime labs — amassing their own DNA databases of potential suspects, some collected with the donors’ knowledge, and some without it.

New York Times

I get it. Anonymity is dead.

Alright, so how about a trade? The government gets to know our every move -- and the citizens get automatic, portable no-hassle voter registration? Everyone who is old enough can vote without any bureaucratic bullshit.

After all, they know who we are.

2 comments:

Civic Center said...

The trade I want to see is if the government can follow our every move, we should just as easily be able to follow every move of our public servants.

Classof65 said...

If the police can swab everyone, innocent or guilty, what is the holdup in processing every rape kit that has been collected from victims in thirty-plus years? Many of those victims may be dead before their kit is ever entered into any data base.

I believe that swabbing arrested people before trial is unconstitutional, but then, I believe that the whole Patriot Act is unconstitutional. I have written to Mr. Obama repeatedly about these issues, as well as Social Security, Medicare, ending the war in Afghanistan -- despite my request for a reply, he never writes, not even a form letter.

I am convinced that Obama is a better President than Romney would have been, but I am still disappointed in him.