Examples of unneeded intrusions of privacy that the United States impose on it's citizens?

Stuff that comes to mind.

* All forms that require or collect needless data such as address, phone number, SSN, birth date.

* TSA body scanners, and trivia databases (see the recent question about the kid who forgot his ID but could identify himself to TSA by answering weird trivia about aunt’s job, or whatever).

* The need to provide lots of personal information in order to receive insurance and medical care.

* Computer chips inside passports.

* Audio sensors designed to recognize and report explosions and gunfire.

* Attachment of tracking devices on (foreign) cars crossing the border into the country.

* The forests of electronic scanners at border crossings.

* The 1984-like networks of security cameras in Chicago.

* Databases kept by police and other government agencies on citizens who have not been convicted of crimes, and police equipped with networked computers which can look them up by car license plate number.

* There have been Defense Department “requests for proposals” which are looking for ways to program computers to automatically analyze wiretap and other data from spying on the population, to determine who might be good targets to proactively eliminate because they might be likely to be hostile.

Cue: some rant about not helping with homework :P

I don’t live in the states but something that jumped to mind was those pat downs/scanners at the airport. Some people seem to have a really bad experience with those.

Asking intimate questions about your finances just so they can work out if they’ve taxed you enough.

I just read about this, but yaknow its just another drop…

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/07/20117258145965608.html

What about operation Echelon which allegedly monitors all electronic communication globally so that nothing at all can be considered private anymore.

“Like a mammoth vacuum cleaner in the sky, the National Security Agency (NSA) sucks it all up: home phone, office phone, cellular phone, email, fax, telex…satellite transmissions, fiber-optic communications traffic, microwave links, voice, text images (that are) captured by satellites continuously orbiting the earth and then processed by high-powered computers.”

I would absolutely use the Patriot Act as an example of the US Government´s power to disregard Civil Rights. I would also use the ´Justice System´s´ support of big corporations and how they have made it legal for businesses to erode your privacy as well.
The amount of drug testing by companies seems crazy to most of us in Europe. It is the government that made this legal. Also, the health care system and insurance companies and how they can “exclude” conditions that you can be treated for because they ask you a battery of questions before they will insure you and they can look at your medical records before insuring you or before paying out for a claim! Talk about breach of privacy!

Obamacare…where the government forces participation in an economic marketplace.

Echelon is another nasty thing owned by the US Government. In New Zealand, when I lived there, a journalist broke a story that the data collected in the Nelson center was used for Industrial Espionage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(signals_intelligence). All I can remember was that it had to do with the auto industry. More proof that the US has been in the grips of fascism for more than a decade.

Soon to come: a government controlled botnet infostructure.

NSA warrantless wiretapping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy

@lucillelucillelucille Give hospitals the right to turn away those who don’t pay, and you would be correct. But hey! If you like mandated theft from hospitals, that’s on you.

@ro_bot The mandate that librarians rat out their customers book borrowing habits.

There is an interesting article here where you can read that the NSA is now building multi-billion-dollar data storage facilities in Maryland, Utah, Texas, and even the United Kingdom (where the NSA culls Internet data generated abroad). The 1.5-million-square-foot Utah facility alone, which broke ground in January, will store data in the yottabyte range. (A yottabyte is the size of the entire Internet.) Quotes from the article…..

“U.S. intelligence agencies currently have the capacity to download everything “from” or “through” the Internet, including private e-mails, web traffic, and telephone records. According to a May 23 New Yorker article by Jane Mayer, the NSA has indexed private Internet data in a “Google-style” searchable database for intelligence agencies to use.”

“Some readers might be inclined to say: “I’m not doing anything wrong, so I’m not worried about government wiretapping.” But the real power of surveillance is not just discovering illegal acts. Rather, it’s in the ability to blackmail and intimidate both the great masses and political opposition leaders. Warrantless surveillance allows the government to find out anything embarrassing about anyone on the Internet. It allows the government to know — and blackmail — people with embarrassing medical histories (substance abuse, mental illness, incontinence, STDs, etc.), Internet traffic (in pornography, foul language, wasted time at work on Facebook, etc.), people who have made negative or angry remarks about bosses (or colleagues, family members, etc.), poor grades in school, disciplinary measures or negative reviews at work, and an almost limitless list of perfectly legal but embarrassing measures.”

Building zoning ordinances that tell you what you can do on your private property.

@Judi and that fact that you really don’t even own your property because the state can kick you off if they want to a) mine or b) build an overpass or a road/highway.

@Judi and @tranquilsea Those are both necessary examples of intrusion into privacy.

Lot’s of stuff out there but my favorite is the ability for police to pull you over and evaluate you for wrong doing (sobiety check points). They can be used for a lot more than just sobriety.

We have the “patriot act” that codifies government intrusion in to any one’s life. A person can be accused, pulled off the street, and sent to a foreign prison to be interrogated and tortured without anyone being notified. I wonder how many times that has already happened.

Just be aware, if you don’t hear from me for a week or more, it is likely that I am one of those people.

I think I should warn my fellow jellies about answering this question. You never know who is taking notes.

@YARNLADY Not answering questions like this will arouse suspicion. Best to pretend we don’t know they are listening and carry on as normal. That way they will never suspect a thing.

@YARNLADY @flutherother, hahaha, and we are approaching Oceania territory and a Big Brother government. I’m almost surprised ‘they’ can’t turn on and access my webcam. WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVER. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

AND PUBLICITY IS PRIVACY. hahah.

By the way, thanks everyone for all your great answers, examples, and links! My essay will turn out a lot better because of you! thanks.

Furthermore, I still appreciate your new comments and suggestions (this will take several days to write).

Btw, @flutherother, the good news about Echelon is “they can intercept all telephone, fax and data traffic transmitted via such satellites..BUT.. The proportion of international communications accounted for by satellite links is said to have decreased substantially over the past few years in Central Europe to an amount between 0.4 and 5%.” So they only have MOST of my information, haha.. That doesn’t mean they haven’t tapped into fiber optic switches.

@ro_bot ; if you have an XBOX kinnect they CAN