Let it all hang out

"This would be done where it's "of benefit to the citizen and necessary to the delivery of the service or program," or for public health and safety.
(snip)
The information at stake includes some of the most personal things about people, he said. Information about medical history, mental health, addictions, housing and criminal records would be included, he said."

Great idea. Let's start with our elected officials. I want to know if our leaders have mental health or addiction issues before I lend them my support. It strikes me that this would be of immense benefit to citizens.

that's a great idea! Full

that's a great idea! Full disclosure. And long overdue daily urine tests for all politicians.

Rule No. 2

Rule No. 2: Effective control of the population requires that a dictator have knowledge of every aspect of a citizen's existence. Privacy enables dissension and may contribute to revolt.

(Rule No. 1: "Controlling what the public sees and hears is essential to the successful operation of a stable dictatorship.")

screw the Patriot Act

I don't want any American company to have access to my personal information. Why should they? What next? China & Russia & Iran can also get access?
Information gathering that is pertinent to our BC and Canadian governments is one thing ... but in a world that is seemingly full of people (including those working for our governments) who wish to steal identities for nefarious purposes, less personal information is always better.
Isn't this why we all bought shredders?

Interesting stuff

I remember years ago when I worked at a skip-tracing outfit that tracked down, primarily, American debtors. The databases used were such that you could type in any identifying number that was ever associated with a person and instantly get a past and present set of addresses.

The fun part was that you could do the opposite also: you could look at any address and instantly get all the identifying numbers of all previous people that ever linked their name there, either as a renter/owner, registered as billing, etc. You could look at any house and instantly know the people's SSN, DL #, and so on, and you could then follow their history through time, where they ever lived, etc.

Celebrity searches were grounds for firing.

It made it very easy to call a company, like a power company or whatever, and pretend to be the person (using a caller ID spoofer, which is legal in most states), and find out even more, like their unlisted new phone number, or whatever. That's American privacy for you!

I was told at the time that Canadian privacy laws were so tight that this kind of databasing would be illegal here, and it seemed that way, but it's all unraveling now that we're giving the yanks the keys to the cookie jar. Who's going to enforce our privacy laws in America, the Americans? Hardy har har!

Now that I think about it

Now that I think about it, this acceleration of circumvention of privacy probably has a lot to do with the vulnerable Canadian debt market. Canada's privacy laws are actually rather stifling to would be debt-collectors, and with a large housing bubble, interest rates set to go up, an uncertain economic future due to potential for a double dip recession in the USA (as Colin Hansen has even warned about), and CMHC's slow but steady draw-back from the insurance of higher-risk mortgages, lenders in Canada are surely looking for a way to reduce losses on defaults when the market gets lousy. They are, after all, in the business of lending money, and cascading uninsured defaults with strong limits on debt collection practices would bode poorly for our banks and lenders, not to mention their beneficiaries, the developers (are they an important group in BC?).

Look out for tightened rules on declaring personal bankruptcy as a harbinger of the shit hitting the fan.

When the Soviets and

When the Soviets and satellites were collapsing, there were TV news reports, showing the millions of files and the methods the secret polices have been using to spy on citizens.

Yet, the methods they used were primitive chickenfeed in comparison to the potential and existing electronic spying methods used by today's rulers under the "freedoms capitalism"

Every time we use a credit card, or pay by cheque every single item we buy, every phone call we make is recorded on some super computers in central USA.
Whatever we write here, or on any other blog and list is also recorded. That's why I always sign my name.

The difference between the enslavement by communism and capitalism is only in the methods used, but the people behind are always the same predator class under every religion, ideology and flag.

Ed Deak.

Privacy for jailers and police

How wonderful for the jailers that beat and torture ones in their custody. How wonderful for RCMP that shoot ones in their custody in the back of the head. Even now with video that may be released it seems the video mysteriously doesn't function when the jailers or RCMP need it not to.

We are already chattel for the bankrupt corporation called CANADA as evidenced by the NAME on the Birth Certificate and the Revenue Receipt on the back of the Birth Certificate.

The Banks can loose nothing if one defaults on ones so called debt as the Banks had nothing to loan in the first place. The money is created when you sign the promise to pay. The only value is your signature. We have already funded everything through the Birth Certificate as evidenced by the Revenue Receipt on the back.

Wake up people learn the Bills of Exchange Act.

In the Financial Administrations Act of Canada
"money" includes negotiable instruments;
"negotiable instruments" includes any cheque, draft,traveller's cheque, bill of exchange, postal note, money order, postal remittance and any other similar instrument;
Look up the meaning of includes. In Websters Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary it says first meaning "to shut in: ENCLOSE. Notice the FAA meaning does not include Canada Bank Notes, probably because they are in fact debt notes not money.

Arrogance

These guys have been arrogant since the day they took office. They won't play by the rules when it comes to freedom of government information, now they want us to loosen up with ours. I'd like to find an alternative government. If only the NDP could learn economic management.

Leave my records alone. The

Leave my records alone. The recent mess of erecords run by the medical gang should be enough to show us that this government can't handle the records they have now. Give big brother a shiny new computer and watch out.

secrets go both ways,

secrets go both ways, support Wikileaks:
http://wikileaks.org/?t=a#spying

And a few Fiberal secrects ought to get out, Wikileaks might print them. Anyone positioned?

Personal Medical Data

There is no reason to store medical data outside of BC.

I oppose others being able to view my medical data period without my approval.

Say No!

What are you prepared to give up?

Why doesn't government use Facebook for that? How could Children & Families not know that this guy was just out of prison? Why do I have to log in separately to each government system? Because of privacy rules. "No sharing ever" is as silly as "no rules at all". We need a balance, and sensible rules. Unfortunately we have a system in which FIPA has to be sensational to get heard. I hope that while the breast-beating goes on in public, sensible people are meeting in private to come up with reasonable solutions.

Amazing

First of all, I don't recall the BC Liberal party running on this during the last election. It's bad enough they lowballed the deficit and lied about the HST.

Can stalags be far behind?

Privacy? Stop fooling yourselves!

You actually beleive that in the age of internet that you have any level of privacy? Stop fooling yourselves! Any Canadian with a passport, DL, SIN, MSP coverage, a bank account, a federal tax account has already been violated, and their information can be accessed and dispersed by those unseen minions of government.
On top of that if you make use of email, blogs, search engines, social networking sites, etc. you and your info and comments are public property WHETHER YOU HAVE GIVEN YOUR PERMISSION OR NOT!
I'm with Ed on this one, I use my name - they know who I am anyways!

rollandmiller...and marushka...

Your medical data and billing services are already stored outside of BC...as is the data for our Family Maintenance Program, your ICBC records...and so on.

I would strongly suggest that those who don't know these issues read Murray Dobbin's columns on this website. Start by clicking on his name in the Columns list, then enter the search word MAXIMUS. One link leads to another, and so on. There is a good afternoon of reading at least...so make yourself comfy and keep a glass of water nearby. You'll need it when the flames of anger start to burn.

You could also enter Oracle Corporation or Larry Ellison on the main page search box too I would think. The Tyee has a wealth of information regarding these issues - and this is the only website I've found that does. You can be absolutely assured that NONE of what you'll be reading has ever been touched by mainstream media...at least in any meaningful way.

And...NO...I am NOT a Tyee employee. Merely an avid reader.

Beyond the hideous breach of ethics, there's the irony...

"Officials argue the powers would help them better serve the public"

When has Gordon Campbell ever served the citizens of this province. He's crushed education, he's increased homelessness, he's practically de-indexed the pittance of welfare, he's given landlords the ability to increase rents beyond inflation...what has this cobag done for citizens, but NOT support them?

Is there any way we can fight this, legally? I'm thinking SUPREME COURT, BITCHES.

So when do we get..........

....our identifaction tats?

The BC Libs are the most right-wing on the continent.

The BC Liberal government is the most right-wing one on the continent. They are trying to fix it so that corporations have the right to vote at the municipal level.

http://www.straight.com/article-298235/vancouver/should-bc-psychopaths-be-allowed-vote

And now this? Putting ALL of our private records under US control?

They are barking mad! The HST and all the cuts everywhere (except their business buddies) have proved that over and over again! It's long past the time these guys were turfed!