It was just a few weeks ago that I posted this item, about a proposed new federal database that would include biometric info about every American. The stated purpose of the database – to ensure that employers don’t hire illegals (it’s a part of the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill) – is good, as I said in the post.
But I also worried whether such a database would be open to abuse, and whether it might be expanded to include all sorts of other information about us (tax data, political donations, etc).
I worried as I posted it that it might be considered paranoid. While I don’t think of myself as a particularly paranoid person, the problem is that none of us are very good judges of our own mental states.
I feel considerably less concern about whether I’m crazy now. In light of the fact that the feds are listening in on our phone calls and reading our Facebook posts, I think it’s quite reasonable to assume that they would use such a database to advance their own purposes – whether those purposes are ‘national security’ or protecting the incumbent party.
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