Breaking News: Obama's passport breached by State Dept.

By the way, the republican playbook on this one is going to be: Hint that there must be something in there that is damaging - why else would someone be looking? They don't actually need anything damaging to be ACTUALLY in those records. They'll be able to say "Obama is keeping his passport records secret''. Or "He doesn't want everyone to know where he's traveled''.

 

They aren't looking at you and me.

 

How do you know?

 

We're not celebrities, we're not politicians, we're so low on the radar it's laughable.
I'm not endorsing domestic wiretaps by any means, just saying I'm not worried about it.

 

They are if you call from America to someplace NotAmerica.

 

Even Canada?

 

Wanna bet against it? I don't.

 

Well, mine was sarcasm, but more I think about it, you're probably right.

 

Tell that to innocent people who go to the airport one day and find that --- surprise! --- you're on a no-fly list because you have the same name as someone else or you wrote a book critical of the wrong people.

 

Nice to see that first couple trillion we've spent on Homeland Security paying dividends, too. I'm sure the State Department's version of Windows '95 has a pretty cool 16-bit encryption code for the high-risk stuff like passport information and so forth.

 

I misspoke. They do not have 16-bit encryption.

They're wide open.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1724759,00.html?cnn=yes


But privacy experts are concerned nonetheless, because the move is part of a trend in which more and more of citizens' personal information is being put at the fingertips of a growing number of government employees. Hundreds of such expansions are happening across the government every year, says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute. "Federal databases are knitting themselves together into larger databases," says Harper; "we have to worry about the privacy consequences and personal security consequences for average Americans." Administration officials routinely justify linking databases as a key part of rooting out terrorists.

 

Jeebus. I have better encryption on my e-mail.