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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 05 2016, @09:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the license-to-snoop dept.

News from the USA's State of Washington via komonews.com!

The friendly government folks in King County, Washington, have been caught buying data on local shoppers and mining it to find the home addresses of freeloading scallywags who are likely to own a pet without also having purchased a matching permission slip.

This is one small example of how the big nose of government can end up in unpleasant, uncomfortable places when it is let off its leash. It is also an illustration of how any entity can target and locate people of specific demographics via purchase and exploitation of "private" bulk data derived from common customers' commerce.

I have a strong preference to use only cash for in-person transactions and refuse the use of so-called loyalty or discount cards, which should make such data mining much more difficult, particularly as the numbers of like-minded folks increase.


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  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday November 06 2016, @05:06AM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Sunday November 06 2016, @05:06AM (#423022) Journal

    Wow, you're clearly voting for Trump. It's a wrongheaded policy to look at every single thing as something that must be taxed to pay "a fair share" of the costs. It adds overhead and administrative costs that are killing our economy.

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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:44PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Sunday November 06 2016, @04:44PM (#423154) Homepage Journal

    Wow, you're clearly voting for Trump.

    Was I just a victim of Poe's Law? It's Republicans who are against regulation, not Democrats.

    --
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