You Can’t Escape Data Surveillance In America – The Atlantic

Source: You Can’t Escape Data Surveillance In America – The Atlantic

The Fair Credit Reporting Act was intended to protect privacy, but its provisions have not kept pace with the radical changes wrought by the information age.

people don’t object to spying on the grounds that the secret dossier about them might be full of errors. They object to spying because it’s spying.

The effect of letting someone sue without showing harm is obvious: It makes it really easy to sue. … Yet when it comes to privacy invasion, it’s difficult to show real life injury. … Having to show harm, or not having to show harm, can make or break an entire genre of lawsuits.

while it’s tempting to simply call for more federal intervention, paternalistic impulses sometimes harm the most vulnerable among us.