Good news for all who wish to disappear, information brokers, data brokers and those alike are being forced out of business. The hot media coverage and current government hearings are about data brokers obtaining private information. Bills are popping up left and right about the legality of pretext and social engineering another words the ancient art of lying to get information.
Fear not America the politicians are fast at work cranking out bills like barkers in a sideshow. Some bills specify a federal law making it illegal to pretext the phone companies, other bills are trying to bring forth a national pretext law making it illegal to pretext. .
The most amazing part of this public hysteria is its all in the name of identity theft. Let us protect the privacy of American's from those who commit identity theft. From what I understand, about nine million Americans have been victims of identity theft, no doubt a real drag. The interesting part of identity theft is if you lose your wallet and someone uses your credit card you are victim of identity theft, sounds more like credit card fraud. You cannot always believe the numbers statistics can be biased.
All right Frank get to the point, I am writing this article titled How to Disappear? Thanks to Big Brother, for once Big Brother is lending a helping hand they are actually going to make disappearing easier. Those of us who enjoy being a perpetual tourist don't really judge other who seeks the same lifestyle as long as their not some criminal on the run, however, those characters can make for some good conversation.
Whatever laws sprout up will make the pursuit of finding you more difficult. Be it your ex-spouse, creditor, who ever is searching for you cannot. I'm not saying you should pick up and beat people out of money, however, some of us have some skeletons in the closest, and some of us just want to leave everything behind. In a matter of time, your dreams are coming true from the most unlikely of friends.
In my first article How To Disappear, I explained how a skip tracer would hunt you down by using various pretext. Calling the utility companies as you, trying to get forwarding information or contact information, contacting the phone companies and getting old phone records to see where you called. Contacting airlines for frequent flier accounts to see where you flown, the list goes on and on and on. The days of skip tracers hunting you down or data brokers getting information about you are ending.
Living the perpetual lifestyle is not cheap; perhaps you are a business owner that affords you these luxuries. Assuming you have a small car dealership and in these tough times, some people are not paying, time to call the repo-man to get back those cars. The repo-man tells you the cars are gone and the people have moved. Times to call the skip tracer, oh wait their out of business, it's against the law to pretext and locate the lousy SOB who took off with the car. It is only a thirty thousand dollar car; it's a loss part of business.
I could write a thousand examples of how a skip tracer or data broker has done good and minimal on how they have done badly. Skip tracers and data brokers are perhaps a necessary evil, they provide answers when needed, they move quickly when time is of the essence and operate in a gray are of legality as well as an undefined moral area. A skip tracer can be your worst nightmare as well as your best friend, it all depends what side of the fence you stand.
So good news in disappearing, pretext is ending!
Frank M. Ahearn Privacy Expert
Reporters from the Times have exposed controversial Home Office plans to create a huge government database that will contain confidential details of every phone call and email in the UK. The database will be populated with confidential data that is collated from telecoms companies and Internet service providers (ISPs).
Under government orders, Telecoms companies have been holding information about phone calls and text messages since last year. However, under these new plans, the Home Office will extend this to include e-mails, too. These records can be easily accessed by police officers and the security services by simply applying to the courts for a warrant.
Although the plans for this Orwellian database are at an early stage, insiders believe that they might be included in the draft Communications Data Bill, which is due at the end of the year. The Communications Data Bill is being created in the interest of national security and crime prevention following the 7/7 bombings. A Home Office spokesperson said of the Bill: "The Communications Data Bill will help ensure that crucial capabilities in the use of communications data for counter-terrorism and investigation of crime continue to be available."
News of the database has been met with criticism. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis believes that storing such confidential information in one central place could be risky, he said: "This could well be more of a threat to our security than a support." Jonathan Bamford of the Information Commission, an independent authority that protects personal information, also believes that this database might be a security risk. He said: "This would give us serious concerns and may well be a step too far. We are not aware of any justification for the State to hold every UK citizen's phone and internet records. We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable. We have warned before that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Holding large collections of data is always risky - the more data that is collected and stored, the bigger the problem when the data is lost, traded or stolen."
Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that the government's recent data protection scandals indicated that they "were not to be trusted" with such confidential data. Indeed, these scandals include the recent loss of a CD containing the details of every child benefit claimant in the UK, so it's hardly surprising that he is concerned. He said: "Given the appalling track record of data loss, this state is simply not to be trusted with such private information."
A Home Office spokesperson said that any plans they consider would take privacy into account. They said: "These powers will continue to be subject to strict safeguards to ensure the right balance between privacy and protecting the public."
Both Frank Ahearn & Marcia Literral are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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