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Old 05-11-2009, 08:47 AM
 
12,669 posts, read 20,444,022 times
Reputation: 3050

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Quote:
Originally Posted by GOPATTA2D View Post
Actually, we do. I just don't care that they do. There is too much information for them to digest all at once. The point is that at some future date, it could be data-mined on a case-by-case basis and used against you improperly.

For example, Wal-Mart has one of the nation's largest database networks in the world. They store every purchase made, at least according to the cashiers. They do this so that if you return something later that you purchased with a card they have a record of it.

Lets say you use your debit card to buy rope for a clothesline. Then you buy some spray paint for the bench in the back. Then you buy a case of Budweiser. Finally, you buy a new gas can. These are discrete purchases over six months. Innocent purchases.

A year later, they find a burned up car in the woods with a dead guy (your old enemy from college) tied up in the trunk. There is a gas can nearby, Bud cans on the floor of the car, and somebody has spray painted "Loser" on his house.

The FBI asks some guy in India to data-mine for anybody who purchased rope, Bud, paint, and a gas can on the same debit card. They pull you out, along with thousands of others. Ah, but they cross-reference another database and learn that 20 years ago he stoled your college girlfriend from you. All of a sudden you are prime suspect number one, even though you have not seen him in 20 years and never liked that girl anyway. That is the danger.

Too much information in the wrong hands is just as bad as not enough information.

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Old 05-11-2009, 09:46 AM
 
Location: Hangin' with the bears.
3,813 posts, read 4,914,505 times
Reputation: 915
Quote:
Originally Posted by TnHilltopper View Post
Well this is a trend that has been occurring for the past decade and has only increased the speed of its implementation with the advancement of technology. Its not like this is something new.
Thanks for saying what I was going to say. When I read the title of this thread, I wondered how long it would take to blame President Obama for this. Five posts was all it took.....

Some people must be exhausted all the time as hatred is such an energy draining emotion.
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Old 05-11-2009, 09:53 AM
 
Location: I currently exist only in a state of mind. one too complex for geographic location.
4,196 posts, read 5,842,951 times
Reputation: 670
how much you want to bet my front door won't get GPSed? I invite them to try.
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Old 05-11-2009, 09:54 AM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,457,651 times
Reputation: 4586
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefinalsay View Post
how much you want to bet my front door won't get GPSed? I invite them to try.
They already did mine.

They'll do it when you're not home and just leave a note on the door.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:01 AM
 
Location: I currently exist only in a state of mind. one too complex for geographic location.
4,196 posts, read 5,842,951 times
Reputation: 670
I haven't seen them and I am home most of the day. they better be super quiet. I honestly don't understand the purpose. they already have the information VIA the property survey. it's already county record.

Quote:
Originally Posted by afoigrokerkok View Post
They already did mine.

They'll do it when you're not home and just leave a note on the door.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Texas
14,975 posts, read 16,457,651 times
Reputation: 4586
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefinalsay View Post
I haven't seen them and I am home most of the day. they better be super quiet. I honestly don't understand the purpose. they already have the information VIA the property survey. it's already county record.
It's for the 2010 Census. They want to know exactly where each house is.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:16 AM
 
Location: I currently exist only in a state of mind. one too complex for geographic location.
4,196 posts, read 5,842,951 times
Reputation: 670
but they know where my house is. it's on a foundation. it hasn't moved since 1995. not only do they know where my house is, they know how large my lot is, and where my house sits on my lot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by afoigrokerkok View Post
It's for the 2010 Census. They want to know exactly where each house is.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:17 AM
 
26,212 posts, read 49,031,855 times
Reputation: 31776
Quote:
Originally Posted by GOPATTA2D View Post
Actually, we do. I just don't care that they do. There is too much information for them to digest all at once. The point is that at some future date, it could be data-mined on a case-by-case basis and used against you improperly.

For example, Wal-Mart has one of the nation's largest database networks in the world. They store every purchase made, at least according to the cashiers. They do this so that if you return something later that you purchased with a card they have a record of it.

Lets say you use your debit card to buy rope for a clothesline. Then you buy some spray paint for the bench in the back. Then you buy a case of Budweiser. Finally, you buy a new gas can. These are discrete purchases over six months. Innocent purchases.

A year later, they find a burned up car in the woods with a dead guy (your old enemy from college) tied up in the trunk. There is a gas can nearby, Bud cans on the floor of the car, and somebody has spray painted "Loser" on his house.

The FBI asks some guy in India to data-mine for anybody who purchased rope, Bud, paint, and a gas can on the same debit card. They pull you out, along with thousands of others. Ah, but they cross-reference another database and learn that 20 years ago he stoled your college girlfriend from you. All of a sudden you are prime suspect number one, even though you have not seen him in 20 years and never liked that girl anyway. That is the danger.

Too much information in the wrong hands is just as bad as not enough information.
What you write about Wal-Mart is TRUE. K-Mart does it too.

It was 20 years ago this summer, when I worked for the Army, in the data business. I was at a conference in TX put on by the TeraData company, maker of fail-safe back end data-base machines that can store massive amounts of data and spread it over hundreds of drives so you can search massive datasets and get back answers in seconds, or less.

I talked with a data guy from QVC, in Philadelphia, the TV shopping network. They used TeraData's as did my Army agency. From mining their data, QVC found that blue-colored things sold best between 2-4AM, so that's when they put such items the air.

K-Mart had TeraData's in their Flint, MI headquarters. They track EVERY item of inventory in EVERY store and if the checkouts don't record enough sales of that item within a set parameter of time, boom, a software trigger fires and guess what - BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL, that day, that hour...K-Mart shoppers head over to aisle four for a BLS on tele-tubbies.

American Airlines had a couple of people there. Yep, they used TeraData's to check how seats were selling on any given flight, at any moment of the day. If seats were selling slowly on Flight X, prices came down on that flight until sales reached the "norm" but then prices went back up to maximize income. If seats were selling well on a given flight, then UP went the price of seats on that flight.

Anyone see a trend here...

Translation: You're being targeted, financially, by just about everyone out there. Actually, it's your WALLET that is being targeted.

Yes. There were several guys there from the CIA, who could not divulge how they used their TeraData machines. We loved ours. What used to take our ancient Honeywell mainframe 77 hours to do, the TeraData did it in 23 minutes. We went to war in Desert Storm on our TeraData, but that's another story.

If people watch those crime and forensic shows on cable, you'll know that all the cell phone companies keep track of every call, and not only that, they keep track of which cell phone towers your call goes through, from which they damned near do a GPS thing on your location....and if your phone has GPS in it....your goose is really cooked. Commit a crime and use your cell phone nearby and you WILL be pinpointed within 30-feet of that location at that precise second in time.

Oh wait, there is more. Every inkjet printer is designed to spray a certain set of tiny droplets on each sheet of paper that is just like a fingerprint of THAT printer, by serial number. The FBI can put pages under a certain light source and know with certainty that it was YOUR printer that wrote that nasty threatening letter. Not kidding. Ain't technology fun kiddies!
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 05-11-2009 at 10:36 AM..
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:39 AM
 
Location: The Woods
18,356 posts, read 26,489,954 times
Reputation: 11350
Quote:
Originally Posted by afoigrokerkok View Post
It's for the 2010 Census. They want to know exactly where each house is.
To give to the UN: United Nations is behind 2010 census GPS locating - The Tree Of Liberty

Which begs the obvious question of why? We've gone over 220 years under the current Constitution without needing this in our censuses.
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Old 05-11-2009, 10:57 AM
 
Location: SE Arizona - FINALLY! :D
20,460 posts, read 26,326,009 times
Reputation: 7627
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miborn View Post
No obama is helping this along with the GPSing of everyone's front door!
Yeah, so when those front doors move, we'll be able to track them by satellite.


Ken
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