Just How Safe Are We?

I couldn’t believe this story. On the other hand, I work in technology so I very much realize just how small the world is in terms of data. What amazed me was just how easy it was for this blogger to obtain the phone numbers simply by paying for it. I don’t know if laws were broken, but I suppose not.

The question we should be asking is, “Is anything safe any longer?” As for myself, I don’t believe I have any data that is that important. Don’t get me wrong. I have private cell phone numbers and many personal contacts that I very much protect. But they aren’t a matter of national security. Not that Gen. Wesley Clark’s numbers were, but I bet he had some pretty interesting phone numbers that were purchased.

It also occurred to me that when I go to the grocery store, I will often check myself out (no jokes please) at the check out stand. I often have wondered, since absolutely everything is bar coded, what they do with all that data. On top of that, they know that it is me that is buying it because I swipe my Stop N’ Shop card prior to scanning anything. So, they know what we eat and what our “shopping trends” are. How could that be used in a harmful way?

On the other hand, the paranoid part of me says, “...somehow they are going to take my grocery data... it will end up in the hands of Al Qaeda... from that data Al Qaeda will be able to deduce my recipe for ‘winter greens’... the Muslim world will grow to love my ‘winter greens’... at some point they will decide that my ‘winter greens’ are ‘evil’ and the ‘work of Satan’ (and America) since their origins were traced back to a gay American... and they will use that against us... making it look like it was me who did it!”

Blogger Buys Presidential Candidate’s Call List

One of the nation’s top political bloggers purchased the cell phone records of former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark on Thursday to demonstrate the growing privacy concerns highlighted in a Chicago Sun-Times story last week.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know who [Sun-Times columnist] Bob Novak was calling in the month that [CIA agent] Valerie Plame’s name came out? How about [U.S. Attorney] Patrick Fitzgerald’s phone calls?

John Aravosis, publisher of AMERICAblog.com, said he bought Clark’s records for $89.95 from celltolls.com. Aravosis said he obtained a list of 100 calls made on Clark’s cell phone over three days in November -- no questions asked.

Aravosis, whose liberal blog is critical of the Bush administration, said he called Clark’s cell phone Thursday to make sure the former NATO supreme commander was informed Aravosis bought his records. Aravosis did not publish the numbers on his blog.

“I am not doing this to be mean, I am doing this to help people,” Aravosis said. “I supported [Clark’s] campaign when he was running in the beginning.

“This shows nobody’s records are untouchable. . . . Wouldn’t it be interesting to know who [Sun-Times columnist] Bob Novak was calling in the month that [CIA agent] Valerie Plame’s name came out? How about [U.S. Attorney] Patrick Fitzgerald’s phone calls?” (source)