Briefs

in "Brave New Era for Privacy Fight", Wired News, by Kim Zetter, Jan. 13, 2005 ...

The corporate sector has increasingly been collaborating with government agencies in data-mining projects that whittle away individual liberties. Privacy advocates say this will be the most important issue to watch this year.

Although laws prohibit the government from building dossiers on individuals, they don't prohibit the government from buying information from commercial data aggregators like Acxiom, ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, which collect information about citizens' web surfing, bank transactions, doctor visits and travel itineraries. And there are no laws governing how federal agencies can use the data.

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