OT: Who's watching the watcher?

["LaBarbera, William" <asagiri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi. 
Well just as an FYI; with the passage in Congress (and in the Senate
shortly) of the Homeland Security Act was an additional project called
"Total Information Awareness" run by the Pentagon and headed by Rear-Admiral
John Poindexter (Ret.) of Iran-Contra fame. This new program will allow the
Pentagon merge commercial, and governmental databases under one roof and
will allow the government to access your credit records, employment
histories, divorce records, drivers license and Social Security numbers,
mail- order purchases, criminal proceedings, gun registrations, civil
lawsuits, professional licenses, emails sent and received, passport
applications, military and civil service files, bridge toll records, bank
accounts, credit card accounts, debts and loans, annual income, IRS records,
airline travel records, police and FBI dossiers, hidden surveillance camera
files, the movie titles you rent from pay-per view or the video store, the
DVD titles you watch on your home computer, the websites you visit, your
library book withdrawals, the schools your children attend, pet ownership
and type, lifestyle choice, book and music preferences, Type of residence
(size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, sale price, rent and mortgage
payments), club memberships, events attended and bank deposits and
withdrawals. Lovely isn't it?
I'm not saying that the U.S. doesn't need better security and communication
between the various agencies, but some of this is rather intrusive to say
the least. And it is disturbing that they need to know what school my child
attends or what DVD titles I like to rent. As if that information is going
to somehow have them foil a terrorist plot somewhere...not!

Well I'm fairly certain no-one or at least very few people will be concerned
about this. But I figured I'd let you know anyway.


Bill Gopher aka William LaBarbera
Keefe, Bruyette and Woods
IT Dept.
(212) 887-6711
www.kbw.com 
wlabarbera@xxxxxxx

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