Xah Lee's Unixism

[Charlie Gibbs]

In article <opsd2vlvy7pqzri1 at mjolner.upc.no>, john.thingstad at chello.no
(John Thingstad) writes:

>On Thu, 09 Sep 04 13:12:17 GMT, <jmfbahciv at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> I really want to know.  People keep saying this but never say which
>> freedoms have been lost.
>
>Since this is somewhat related to computer programming and AI I will
>reply.
>
>The US has started a initiative to integrate all information about
>people in the USA into a central database.

Not just people in the USA.

>This includes confidential information like your medical files.

<snip>

>The main challenge in computing is sieving through the amount of data.
>Politically it is to pressure the foreign governments to wave their
>privacy protection acts and allow unlimited access to information to
>a foreign power.

It's been revealed that here in British Columbia (that part of
Canada on the Pacific coast for those of you who are geographically
challenged), management of medical information has been farmed out
to a subsidiary of a U.S. corporation.  According to the Patriot Act,
the U.S. government is entitled to access these files, and anyone -
American or Canadian - who so much as mentions that they're doing it
can be thrown into a U.S. jail.

>Don't know what you think of this but it scares the hell out of me!

Me too.

--
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