The last few weeks have seen some amazing instances of a growing policy problem that you face, whether you want to face it or not, just because you have a face.

The most interesting episode was the Gay tracking feature discovered at a group of San Francisco Gay bars that installed PatronScan Guard+ systems (ID scanners + cameras that photograph patrons and collect personal data like names, addresses, genders, and behavior notes).

The customers revolted.

The data could be retained and shared across a network of venues using the system for blacklisting problem patrons.

In Chico, the Police Chief apologized that the Flock Camera Data had been shared with other agencies because one of the privacy settings was off.

It's not just the government. Private businesses that take pictures of your face, record what you say and where you go, all claim that the data is not shared, protected, or “encrypted.” The fundamental problem is they all lie, and the data miners are getting what they want every time.

One Gay privacy advocate noted that PatronScan does allow you to have your personal information removed from their system… if you go to their website and fill out a form, and the website, yep, it tracks who visits there. It is as if no one has ever heard about what happened to the Jews in Europe, the Native Americans, and Blacks in the 1940s when Eugenicists would run for County Clerk or Commissioner of Health to add “non-white” information to their list of families that were of “mixed race”. Like Christians in Iraq and Lebanon, who were put on “the list” before their houses were bulldozed.

It seems as if our history curriculum in schools has skipped over how many times the people in power make a list and then systematically eliminate the listed individuals.

The Government is prohibited by law from gathering a lot of the data that is being harvested by private industry. Then, by “accident” or by “clicking agree” to a 400-page privacy policy, all the data consolidates. It is insidious and no rational person will believe that the government will protect them while it is acting as a co-conspirator in laying the groundwork for amassing a database that can easily be turned into a “cultural” hit list.

There is a policy solution for this: make gathering consumer data and storing it for more than 60 days illegal, make the fines for “leaking” data massive, increase the amount victims of information theft can receive by lawsuit, and make government data leaking a crime with real consequences.

The jig is up; the American people are seeing every day how this data harvesting is a violation of their rights, and they no longer trust the system.