What data collection should we fear?

ANALYTICS, VOTER IDENTIFICATION, DATA MINING

THE REAL THREAT IS GOVERNMENT PROFILING

The media and the democrats are attempting to create hysteria about data collection and voter identification by political campaigns. Especially by the wrong political campaigns. 

Voter identification has been going on for decades. Before the internet, a political campaign or party would do a baseline poll early in the cycle. This would attempt to identify what issues are most important to certain voters. They then would target these voters with mail or communication featuring their identified concern. This was particularly effective in primary campaigns. 

The polling method is now far less effective as many people no longer answer the phone.

The internet is now a treasure trove of information. People willingly lay their life bare to all to see on Facebook and other websites. Their buying preferences are collected by Ebay, Google, Amazon and others. Much of this information is used by their companies themselves but also filtered and sold to whoever will pay for this information.

What political campaigns are looking for is what issues people are concerned about. This is usually collected from adds for candidates, on line opinion polls and also responses to articles and advertisements. It is then used in targeted mailings, emails, and helps in crafting a message to voters. It can be argued that it really increases and enhances the democratic process. The campaign that can best know what truly concerns the voters is in a advantageous position.

I would assume that any advertisements or articles that were placed on the internet by the Russians were an attempt to gauge public opinion. I would assume that many foreign countries do this to see what Americans are thinking. I also assume the United States is doing the same thing were it can.

The real concern of Americans is the connection between these internet companies and National Security agency (NSA). I watched on national TV as James Clapper the then head of the NSA denied several times while under oath that his agency collects information on American citizens. It was then revealed by the disclosures of Edward Snowden that in fact the NSA collects much information on Americans.  

It has been revealed and written about in many newspapers that the NSA has reimbursed these companies many $ millions for access to this information. Under the PRISM program the NSA actually has direct access to most internet servers and can mine, filter and collect not just your preferences and likes but records of every license you buy, every purchase you make, every organization you belong to or contribute to and your health records. They will soon be able to collect your genetic information.

The NSA has recently completed its newest Data Collection and storage center in Utah. It is only one of many. I suspect that the end result of all this collection is going to be a profile of all Americans. This is already being done in China. The Chinese government has collected data like this on its citizens, it will then classify them and it it used used to determine what your individual access is to public transportation, cell phones, jobs, licenses, health care,  etc. 

I could see a future were everyone is classified with a ranking or number that will determine your future and possibly your children's. How it is determined or quantified we can only guess. But if government has all this information they will use it and I cant see that we will be able protect our individual rights. This is the type of information collection we should all fear.