ObamaDataCare:
Or, how can you be screwing yourself!
Keeping with the theme about how much data we
willingly give away to corporations, let’s connect more dots and see what kind
of picture this could potentially paint. I’m going to stick with the grocery
store theme, as this will be the crux of my argument.
If you have read my other article, then you
know that if you have a customer rewards card, then the store already has a
database full of information about you, which updates every time you visit
their store. Not only does it keep track of frequency of visits, average amount
spent per trip, but also much, much more. For instance, they track the type of cola
you purchase, the type of meat you prefer, if you drink
alcohol and the amount you drink, if you smoke and how many packs you smoke,
and with a little smart programming, they can even map out your personal life,
i.e. if you have kids, if you’re single, if you have a dog or cat, pretty much
they can make an ‘educated guess’ at what kind of life you lead, based off your
purchases.
At this point and time these stores are
collecting this data to ‘customize’ your shopping experience, which sounds like
a noble goal for a company that is based on retaining you as a customer. But, is
it possible that the data the store has compiled could actually be used against
you in the near future?
Alright, everyone don your tinfoil hats…
Ready?
Now let’s take this to next level. While
reading this, please keep in mind that the NSA along with some of the most
prominent cellular and internet service providers are already doing something
similar to this. No telling how they are doing this legally, it could be a
broad interpretation of Title II of the USA Patriot Act (the story being pushed
thus far), could be a FISA court ruling, could be just a convenient
relationship, or it could be it’s just more economical for these companies to
just let the NSA have all this data versus having a legal team to defend every
court ruling requesting data. Whatever the case, it’s happening now and, if
history has any lesson for us, it will most likely continue until a whole lot
of us make a big stink about it.
Now, take that model and switch the ‘players’
around, substitute the Obamacare apparatus for the NSA and the food stores for
the cell/internet service providers. If you haven’t already made the connection
of how this would work, let’s delve into it a little more.
We already know that your local food store
(if you have one of their cards) knows what you’re eating, what you’re
drinking, if you’re smoking and much more, so what if the Obamacare apparatus
gets some kind of secret court ruling, or, for that matter, a regulatory ruling
that they can mine this data to help Obamacare provide you the best healthcare
‘experience’. There are already tens of thousands of medical codes for every aliment
under the sun, if you couple that with a citizen’s personal habits, then you’d
have a good start at attempting to make people as healthy as they should be.
Just think, if this ‘new’ healthcare system discovered
that you were eating a pound of bacon per week and that you have high
cholesterol, they could ‘advise’ you, or maybe put you on a ‘program’ to help
you start making better decisions in your eating habits. Same thing for
smoking, drinking, whatever the system deems might be beneficial to your
health.
OK, tinfoil hats off.
I’m not exactly sure what the founding fathers
meant when they penned the line ‘promote the general welfare’, but I’m pretty
sure this was not what they had in mind!
I believe that a lot of politicians have purposefully tried to
substitute, through their rhetoric and the press, the word ‘provide’ in lieu of
‘promote’ which has major implications considering you only changed three
letters!
Now of course this seems farfetched, but if you
look back in time a little, you’ll find that some of the programs that are
ongoing today would have been considered impossible and more especially, improbable
years ago. One thing to always keep in mind, especially with progressivism and
socialism, is that the people that adhere to these tenants tend to believe that
the government is the best way to solve problems and some of these people will
do anything to make sure that the greater good comes before the good of the
individual.
As always, it will be up to us, We the People
to make sure that programs like this never come to fruition. One of the ways we
can do this is to start being responsible for our own personal data, which
means only sharing this when we absolutely have to. It will make shopping and
other online activities slightly more inconvenient, but think about the
potential price that all this free data could ultimately cost us.
And here is a more in depth story concerning
your (our) security:
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