Your Grocery List Could Spark a Terror Probe

[papercut]

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0230/baard.php

Excerpt:

Your Grocery List Could Spark a Terror Probe
Buying Trouble
by Erik Baard
July 24 - 30, 2002

They thought they were making routine purchases—the innocent, everyday pickups of charcoal and hummus, bleach and sandwich bags, that keep the modern household running. Regulars at a national grocery chain, these thousands and thousands of shoppers used the store's preferred- customer cards, in the process putting years of their lives on file. Perhaps they expected their records would be used by marketers trying to better target consumers. Instead, says the company's privacy consultant, the data was used by government agents hunting for potential terrorists.
...
As John Ashcroft's Citizens Corps spy program prepares for its debut next month, it seems scores of American companies have already become willing snitches. A few months ago, the Privacy Council surveyed executives from 22 companies in the travel industry—not just airlines but hotels, car rental services, and travel agencies—and found that 64 percent of respondents had turned over information to investigators and 59 percent had lowered their resistance to such demands. In that sampling, conducted with The Boston Globe, half of the businesses said they hadn't decided if they'd inform customers of the change, and more than a third said outright that they wouldn't. Only three said they would go public about the level of their cooperation with law enforcement.

The final destination of all that data scares Ponemon and other civil libertarians, defenders of the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure. Ponemon, for one, suggests federal authorities are plugging the information into algorithms, using the complex formulas to create a picture of general-population trends that can be contrasted with the lifestyles of known terrorists. If your habits match, expect further scrutiny at the least.

"I can't reveal my source, but a federal agency involved in espionage actually did a rating system of almost every citizen in this country," Ponemon claims. "It was based on all sorts of information—public sources, private sources. If people are not opted in"—meaning they haven't chosen to participate—"one can generally assume that information was gathered through an illegal system."
...
The Department of Justice, which seeks informants in utility, cable, and other such industries operating in communities, denies that it will cultivate sources placed in data-mining operations. "This makes TIPS sound so much more sophisticated than it's going to be," says spokesperson Charles Miller. "This is still in development but it's nothing more than something to make people more aware of what's going on around them, and most people do that now anyway."

Likewise, both the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency denied roles in any sweeping algorithm to measure citizens' potential terrorist leanings. If anything, the FBI has recently been taken to task for being a tin-cans-and-string Luddite organization. But the FBI is a client of the consumer data aggregator ChoicePoint. And a U.S. official tells the Voice, "Can I categorically deny anybody in government is doing it? No."

 

[Fred Hansen]

The Village Voice

 

[Beowulf_93]

Don't be too critical of the "Voice". Yeah, they're out there, but they typically publish news stories the controlled media won't touch. Nat Hentoff wrote a scathing piece about the fact that American black political groups were ignoring slavery in Africa and even cozying up to some of the "presidents for life" responsible for it. When I read it regularly, there were some pro 2nd Amendment op ed pieces as well.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Want to get the bells and whistles really rolling?

Buy several bottles of ammonia, several bottles of corn syrup, and a couple of boxes of moth balls....

 

[PATH]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Pay with cash and money orders. Don't give out any info you don't have to. Geez, these people are scaring me!

 

[Sodbuster]

Rating? Why, I think I'm rated as a Death Merchant.

Same as the rest of you.

Mike, was that you who wrote that little black book?

 

[braindead0]

If you use a grocery store 'discount' card, probably already scr**wed.. Those things are the biggest scam going... Luckily we still have one Grocer out here that doesn't have one.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Get the discount card.

Do what I did.

False name and address.

Hell, I got one some years ago (now replaced)...

J. M. Browning


Got the discounts AND a chuckle.

 

[Christopher II]

Oh, don't get me started...

Amazing that there are people out there who don't mind this kind of privacy violation, or even think that it's a good thing. How sad.

Good thing I pay cash for almost everything!

- Chris

 

[braindead0]

I find it fun to exchange discount cards with friends, especially if their family is different (kids, no kids..pets... even better single men trade with single women).

Fill their databases with total garbage.

 

[Leatherneck]

Fill their databases with total garbage.

I love it!

 

[Betty]

Gosh, this is funny.

I can just imagine the gov't having a Runt database of all my Kroger groceries. They can just waste their time cataloging how many bell peppers vs. hot peppers I buy.

"Oh my! She's switched from store brand to name brand! The increase in price and spending must mean she's gatting income from an unidentified source! She must be getting paid by Al Queda! Alert! Alert!"

On the other hand,
I do make wonderful explosives with my hot n' spicy recipes. Gotta love those bathroom detonations. :barf:

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Amazing that there are people out there who don't mind this kind of privacy violation..."

It's only a privacy violation if you allow it to be one.

J. M. Browning never minded having his privacy being violated.

Of course, all of the BS sales circulars that the store sent to him never got there...

Something about the zip code, address, phone number, etc., not even coming close to existing...


"I pay cash for almost everything..."

What? Didn't you know that the second those bills go into the register, there are sensors that scan them for finger prints, take DNA from the oil residue from your finger prints, and bean that information directly to FBI headquarters where it goes into your "permanent" file?

 

[HKguy9]

Runt,

I can just imagine the gov't having a Runt database of all my Kroger groceries. They can just waste their time cataloging how many bell peppers vs. hot peppers I buy.

I hear ya...I think if they execute a warrant on my apt they will need gas masks for sure. I have an unfinished bowl of pho and two banh mi sandwiches. I have a rule, if Vietnamese leftovers are in the car, ALL the windows and sunroofs are fully opened!!

My kitchen smells like pickled veggies right now!!! Guess I felt like Vietnamese food yesterday. Good stuff

Now the jars of kimchi are a whole 'nother store

I hope they don't find out about my girlie cereal. You know, the stuff with the strawberries in them! (The K stuff and Honey Bunches of Oats w/ strawberries, mm mmm good!!!)

 

[foghornl]

I love when I get the "Special Discount Offers" and all the other junk mail in my mailbox addressed to George S. Patton, Jr, or G. Armstrong Custer. Then I call the stores "home office" and blast them about selling my name, after marking the "opt-out" for special offers.

 

[gorlitsa]

100% for option number three....

Gee, we TFLers arn't predictable or anything, are we?

 

[Edward429451]

Macgyver!

41 votes for option #3? Are tinfoil hats becoming fashionable?

Aww, does this mean that I gotta start spreading my ammonia purchases out? Supermarket ammonia is watered down and you have to distill the water out to be able to do anything real with it.

Guess I cant buy it by the case anymore.

Dontcha guys read PoorMans James Bond? Thats the stuff they're after. Macgyver type resistance materials.

They made me when they started making the strike anywhere matches with just a sliver of phosphorus instead of a big chunk on top. Tripled the workload!

 

[HKguy9]

I voted for #1

 

[Coronach]

When asked for my address by businesses, I vary between:

1. My PO Box
2. "Sorry, I don't give that out"

and

3. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

...depending upon my level of annoyance and legitimate need for them to have a contact address for me. Sometimes businesses DO need your address and personal info for contacting you. Thats fine...you sure don't need to know where I live, though- PO Box for you. More than one burglary has occurred because someone bought something nice at an electronics store and gave their home address.

The really sad part is that so very very few cashiers recognize that I just gave them G. W. Bush's home address. "Oh, you're just visting from DC? Thats cool. I have a friend who lives there." Yeesh. Buy a clue.

Mike

 

[Azrael256]

Some dude named Washington Irving buys a whoooooooooole lot of DrPepper and strawberry twizzlers at the local IGA. He gets a 3cent/gal discount on gas at the pumps out front, too.