CBS 60 Minutes- Privacy, Schmivacy.

The Data Brokers: Selling your personal information

MARCH 9, 2014, 7:05 PM|Steve Kroft investigates the multibillion dollar industry that collects, analyzes and sells the personal information of millions of Americans with virtually no oversight.

See the full segment: CBS 60 Minutes Stream

A friend watched this last night, and posted a response on Facebook: 

"Did anyone watch the 60 Minutes show this evening? Interesting story, it was about how Data brokers steal all your information from sites you visit, order things online, face book, dating sites, reading the news even. They sell all your information to companies to make new commercials on TV for more ways for you to buy more stuff from them and then some. Just thought I would share this info with everyone, and I do not care if those brokers read this either, because I feel they are invading our privacy already, which is so unfair. Oh, and stealing info on your cell phones also, even know every where you go as a GPS and by you swiping your debt cards as well to steal info. We should eventually go back to old ways, writing letters and mail them, talk on house phones and other ways."

Give Us This Day Yer Mutha's Rant: I watched it, and wasn't even a little bit surprised. It will only get worse, as generations continue to grow into the culture of "no privacy whatsoever" and consider it the norm.

People read it anyway.

Those that find the systematic invasion of privacy wrong will be (are?) considered the oddballs. The corporations will find new and even more heartless ways to exploit this "new normal", and become

even richer and more powerful. The average worker-bee will make minimum wage, and won't even think there's anything wrong with it. Because the corporations told them it was OK, and that's what "normal" is. I found the very end of the segment the most interesting and foreboding: The two largest corporate "harvesters" of private info (Google & Facebook) don't sell the info to other companies the way most harvesters do. They keep it for themselves...

US Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) said it well, recently calling this issue "The dark underside of American life."  BTW, he's not running for reelection, so he now has the freedom to say what he really thinks.  So what do YOU think?  Is this a real problem?  Is it just paranoia?  What will this lead to, in real terms for real people?  COMMENT BELOW!

Today's Favorite Meme/Pic/Vid: 

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