imagine writing an anonymous angry letter to the government. Now imagine the government using your DNA to identify that you were the one that licked the seal. Then imagine power hungry politicians/corporate overlords using that information to make your life a living hell.
Good luck with moving to Japan, but if you are so concerned about living in a police state, then Japan is probably not the best choice.
I am not sure how familiar you are with Japanese police tactics, but there is reason why their confession rate is about 90%, and conviction rate is about 95%. But then being made to stand wet and in your underwear in an air-conditioned room is not really torture. :)
They won't just know your identity, they will have complete control of your identity. They also do not have to tell you what they are doing with that information. If they want to, they can sell your identity. They can subcontract the data acquisition to a civilian company. If that civilian company happens to 'lose' some data, it's not the government's fault. If data is falsified or mixed up accidentally with other data, say with a real criminal, you will not be able to prove the data is incorrect (2004 election). It's considered a government secret and you can't look at it. If you make a Freedom of Information Act request for your own data, you'll get it in about 25 years. You can't touch it any sooner than that. You might wait in prison for it.
@Matt, Don't worry, the government already knows your identity. That much is a given since you have a SSN and (theoretically) pay taxes. However, the government can't automatically identify you individually--doing so takes some amount of effort. Once they have a broad database of biometric facial scans and fingerprints, identifying you individually will be trivial. This means that all public spaces equipped with biometric cameras and banks and ATMs using biometric fingerprint scanners can be used to track your individual movements, both in real time or historically.
Should you care...I think so. Consider this for example, if you attended an anti-government protest and had a biometric image on record, the government would be able to automatically retrieve the personal data on everyone attending that protest, and recreate your actions before and after. And they do record and store those images. You can argue the constitutionality of the government recording those images, but they would probably pass...Things they could do include putting your name on a "No-fly" list prior to large political events, or blocking your employment in government jobs. What they will do with the information becomes a bit of a crap shoot based on the whims of the person or people controlling it. However, given the effort being put into automated data mining, the government sees value in having that information.
@Tony, Sadly, you'd be required to submit a biometric facial scan and fingerprint when arrived in Japan. Of course that's to stop terrorism, but that data is being made available to police agencies for domestic criminal cases...
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I am confused on how our Govt. knowing our identity is a sacrifice of our rights...
imagine writing an anonymous angry letter to the government. Now imagine the government using your DNA to identify that you were the one that licked the seal. Then imagine power hungry politicians/corporate overlords using that information to make your life a living hell.
sounds like paranoia...
Self-sealing envelopes... always be one step ahead (I'm moving to Japan anyway).
Tony,
Good luck with moving to Japan, but if you are so concerned about living in a police state, then Japan is probably not the best choice.
I am not sure how familiar you are with Japanese police tactics, but there is reason why their confession rate is about 90%, and conviction rate is about 95%. But then being made to stand wet and in your underwear in an air-conditioned room is not really torture. :)
They won't just know your identity, they will have complete control of your identity. They also do not have to tell you what they are doing with that information. If they want to, they can sell your identity. They can subcontract the data acquisition to a civilian company. If that civilian company happens to 'lose' some data, it's not the government's fault. If data is falsified or mixed up accidentally with other data, say with a real criminal, you will not be able to prove the data is incorrect (2004 election). It's considered a government secret and you can't look at it. If you make a Freedom of Information Act request for your own data, you'll get it in about 25 years. You can't touch it any sooner than that. You might wait in prison for it.
@ Matt
It's not paranoia if they're watching you
@Matt, Don't worry, the government already knows your identity. That much is a given since you have a SSN and (theoretically) pay taxes. However, the government can't automatically identify you individually--doing so takes some amount of effort. Once they have a broad database of biometric facial scans and fingerprints, identifying you individually will be trivial. This means that all public spaces equipped with biometric cameras and banks and ATMs using biometric fingerprint scanners can be used to track your individual movements, both in real time or historically.
Should you care...I think so. Consider this for example, if you attended an anti-government protest and had a biometric image on record, the government would be able to automatically retrieve the personal data on everyone attending that protest, and recreate your actions before and after. And they do record and store those images. You can argue the constitutionality of the government recording those images, but they would probably pass...Things they could do include putting your name on a "No-fly" list prior to large political events, or blocking your employment in government jobs. What they will do with the information becomes a bit of a crap shoot based on the whims of the person or people controlling it. However, given the effort being put into automated data mining, the government sees value in having that information.
@Tony, Sadly, you'd be required to submit a biometric facial scan and fingerprint when arrived in Japan. Of course that's to stop terrorism, but that data is being made available to police agencies for domestic criminal cases...
@Matt: Sounds like you need to wake the f*ck up.