Free Republic

The last time "plumbers" were as prominent in national politics as accidental celebrity Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, they were a team of political operatives caught breaking into Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. This time, however, it may be the real plumber whose privacy is being invaded: Ohio's inspector general is investigating why Wurzelbacher's records in several government databases were accessed shortly after he became the official everyman of the 2008 presidential race. ... read more

MADISON, Wis. - A landlord snooped on tenants to find out information about their finances. A woman repeatedly accessed her ex-boyfriend's account after a difficult breakup. Another obtained her child's father's address so she could serve him court papers. All worked for Wisconsin's largest utility, where employees routinely accessed confidential information about acquaintances, local celebrities and others from its massive customer database. Documents obtained by The Associated Press in an employment case involving Milwaukee-based WE Energies shine a light on a common practice in the utilities, telecommunications and accounting industries, privacy experts say. Vast computer databases give curious employees the...

Ian Ayres of Yale University Law School talks about the ideas in his new book, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. Ayres argues for the power of data and analysis over more traditional decision-making methods using judgment and intuition. He talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about predicting the quality of wine based on climate and rainfall, the increasing use of randomized data in the world of business, the use of evidence and information in medicine rather than the judgment of your doctor, and whether concealed handguns or car protection devices such as LoJack reduce...

dtjohnson writes "Amazon.com has applied for a patent to create an online customer database which would allegedly contain 'massive amounts of intimate information about its millions of shoppers, including their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and income.' From the article: "The database, which would combine information disclosed voluntarily by customers with facts gleaned from public databases, conceivably would give Amazon a larger or more detailed profile of its customers than any other retailer. Does this cross the privacy line or is it just reasonable data gathering to make retail sales more responsive to customer needs?"

We used to fingerprint felons -- now, we're "inking" traffic scofflaws. Run a couple of mph over the speed limit in the state of Kansas (or even fail to "buckle up for safety") and you'll be duly entered into the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's electronic fingerprint database -- a privilege once reserved for actual criminals, not ordinary citizens who commit minor violations of the motor vehicle code. KBI, authorized by the state government, will be "testing out" 60 automated fingerprint readers throughout the state beginning this month -- all of it funded by a $3.6 million grant from the Department...

May 12, 2006 — Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized. Lending support to the administration's defense of its anti-terrorism intelligence efforts, 63 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the secret program, disclosed Thursday by USA Today, is justified, while far fewer, 35 percent, call it unjustified. Indeed, 51 percent approve of the way President Bush is handling the protection of privacy rights, while 47 percent disapprove — hardly a...

A JOKE in China goes that if you call out the name Wang Wei in the street at least one person is bound to respond. The name Wei, or “Mighty”, is so popular that parents have been turning to ancient and esoteric dictionaries to find more unusual monikers for their children. Not anymore. The Ministry of Public Security has drawn up new rules and babies’ names must in future be drawn from a database that excludes thousands of rare Chinese characters. Out go indecipherable names. With the introduction of electronic identity cards, the authorities will register only names that they...

Google bringing search to historical manuscripts Using shape-matching technology Nancy Gohring History buffs can search George Washington's manuscripts online today for terms such as 'revolution', but only thanks to the tireless workers who transcribed the hand-written documents into digital form. Soon, many other hand-written historical documents could be made available for the public to search - and through considerably less effort - if a research project funded by Google and being executed by three universities works out as planned. The project, announced by DCU (Dublin City University) yesterday, started on a whim. DCU professor Alan Smeaton has been working on...

Computerized security measures inaugurated after 9/11, intended to help in the war against terrorism by foreigners, are providing an addition benefit: the apprehension of U.S. citizens wanted by police. Since the terror attacks in 2001, immigration computers have been hooked up to the database of criminal records and terrorist watch lists maintained by the FBI. The computers are in use at airports, most border crossings and in domestic immigration offices that handle applications for permanent residency and citizenship. ~snip~Among those caught at the Mexican border were a North Carolina man wanted for multiple sex crimes involving children, and a fugitive...

Share-cropping became common in the United States after the Civil War. Back then, many Southern plantations had ample land, but little money to pay wages. At the same time, a large segment of the population was left impoverished, with little prospect of earning an adequate living. So, it was little surprise that the landed people -- those with the means of producing a product -- contracted with the poor, who had labor to offer, to produce a product from which both might profit. Share croppers normally received a home, the necessary tools, farm animals, and sometimes even some education, for...

PanIP claims that if you use graphical and textual information on a video screen for purposes of making a sale, then you are infringing on its patent. Read more on this story here.Patents. They protect us when we come up with a great piece of technology, and allow us to reap the rewards from our hard work and intellectual property. As a creator of intellectual property myself, I thoroughly understand and support the need for patent and copyright laws. Without them, innovation and creativity would be severely stifled.But they can be abused. A company called PanIP holds patents that it...

Weapons Under Moore's Law You will never see effective gun control. The NRA is not to blame (or to thank, depending on your point of view). Neither is the Constitution. Technological trends are at work. In the future, the only law that will govern armaments is Moore's Law. Moore's Law says that weapons will get smaller, cheaper, and varied in form. This phenomenon will pose a challenge not just for disarmament advocates, but for all of us. Ray Kurzweil, in The Age of Spiritual Machines, forecasts how the nature of warfare will change as Moore's Law progresses. "[in 2009] warfare...