Aren't We Pathetic....
The public can sometimes behave in a most absurd manner, bleating on this occasion that their privacy is being invaded by government. Government, its agencies at every level, have quite a range of private information about individuals. Intelligence gathering is pursued as a routine matter where health and education information is compiled, along with tax information and unlawful activities warranting attention from security authorities.
If you've got a driving conviction for traffic infractions it will be noted on your records. If you're a dead-beat father, behind in your support payments that too will be noted. But in the appropriate areas, there will also be records about your latest hospital admissions, including notes on any drugs that you happen to be allergic to. And if your credit rating is good, you can be assured of mortgage approval.
Hospital records are meant to be kept confidential, but there are times when they are shared within the medical community, for the greater good of the patient, and for evaluative, administrative purposes. There are no real guarantees, all things being equal, and the potential for releasing information by default, that this personal data will not be shared with those who have no business viewing it.
The same can be said for academic/educational record-keeping that is maintained routinely by learning institutions that also convey such data to various levels within the field to effect transfers and graduating levels of exposure to formal education. Credit rating agencies, insurance companies, and others of that nature maintain critical data on those who enter their systems.
And then, of course, there is the willingness of otherwise-rational people to place very personal, sometimes intimate information about themselves in the most public of places, the Internet. Using various social-networking sites accessed easily by just about anyone, because people are curious animals and like to sniff around to discover things about other people.
Aside from that, there is the propensity of such sites to sell the information they themselves access while offering free space to public exhibitionists who are prone to screaming bloody murder at the slightest suspicion that 'government' and its agencies are attempting to find out information about them. Advertisers and marketers who scheme to hook you on their products must marvel at the inert mindsets of most people.
Give money to a charitable cause and you're placed on a list, and that list is then sold by that charity to other groups wishing to raise money on the perception that you may be generous and respond to their solicitations. People succumb to the myth that they retain their privacy while they themselves aid in revealing all.
Maintenance of records useful to marketers is big business. It encompasses just about every aspect of life, from what is of real value to us and our well-being (medical records), to true intrusions into our privacy (marketing). If we really wish to remain removed from the remote potential that some outside agency will learn things about us we would rather they not, it's a little late in the day.
The opposition parties in the House of Commons enjoy the opportunities that present themselves to object strenuously to almost anything the government of the day plans to undertake, using hyperbole and spreading a sense of panic among the public to heighten awareness of their role in supporting and defending the civil rights of ordinary Canadians.
The news media jump right on those little dramas, emphasizing the downright ridiculous accusations made to score points, and further inflame the public that feels it has a righteous axe to grind against government. And then some sneaky little twerp who has access to a computer in the House of Commons sends out nasty little innuendos about the Minister involved.
And there, we have a full-blown scandal of the public pretending innocence of forced intrusions into their private matters on the part of government, tweeting messages of condemnation, while unburdening themselves on FaceBook about the state of their personal lives. Is this indicative of the level of concerns that consume us?
Aren't we rather pathetic?
If you've got a driving conviction for traffic infractions it will be noted on your records. If you're a dead-beat father, behind in your support payments that too will be noted. But in the appropriate areas, there will also be records about your latest hospital admissions, including notes on any drugs that you happen to be allergic to. And if your credit rating is good, you can be assured of mortgage approval.
Hospital records are meant to be kept confidential, but there are times when they are shared within the medical community, for the greater good of the patient, and for evaluative, administrative purposes. There are no real guarantees, all things being equal, and the potential for releasing information by default, that this personal data will not be shared with those who have no business viewing it.
The same can be said for academic/educational record-keeping that is maintained routinely by learning institutions that also convey such data to various levels within the field to effect transfers and graduating levels of exposure to formal education. Credit rating agencies, insurance companies, and others of that nature maintain critical data on those who enter their systems.
And then, of course, there is the willingness of otherwise-rational people to place very personal, sometimes intimate information about themselves in the most public of places, the Internet. Using various social-networking sites accessed easily by just about anyone, because people are curious animals and like to sniff around to discover things about other people.
Aside from that, there is the propensity of such sites to sell the information they themselves access while offering free space to public exhibitionists who are prone to screaming bloody murder at the slightest suspicion that 'government' and its agencies are attempting to find out information about them. Advertisers and marketers who scheme to hook you on their products must marvel at the inert mindsets of most people.
Give money to a charitable cause and you're placed on a list, and that list is then sold by that charity to other groups wishing to raise money on the perception that you may be generous and respond to their solicitations. People succumb to the myth that they retain their privacy while they themselves aid in revealing all.
Maintenance of records useful to marketers is big business. It encompasses just about every aspect of life, from what is of real value to us and our well-being (medical records), to true intrusions into our privacy (marketing). If we really wish to remain removed from the remote potential that some outside agency will learn things about us we would rather they not, it's a little late in the day.
The opposition parties in the House of Commons enjoy the opportunities that present themselves to object strenuously to almost anything the government of the day plans to undertake, using hyperbole and spreading a sense of panic among the public to heighten awareness of their role in supporting and defending the civil rights of ordinary Canadians.
The news media jump right on those little dramas, emphasizing the downright ridiculous accusations made to score points, and further inflame the public that feels it has a righteous axe to grind against government. And then some sneaky little twerp who has access to a computer in the House of Commons sends out nasty little innuendos about the Minister involved.
And there, we have a full-blown scandal of the public pretending innocence of forced intrusions into their private matters on the part of government, tweeting messages of condemnation, while unburdening themselves on FaceBook about the state of their personal lives. Is this indicative of the level of concerns that consume us?
Aren't we rather pathetic?
Labels: Crisis Politics, Culture, Cyber-War, Government of Canada, Life's Like That
posted by Pieface | 6:24 PM
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