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Why The Big Brother Watch is Turning Into a Surveillance Fiesta is no Mystery. Personal Information is Gathered From Each Individual Who Does an Internet Search.

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Just how far the big brother watch goes is an open question.

It is a tempting thought that big brother is represented by central government.

It may be the case that all information finally flows back to some vast central database, tracking our every move.

However, it may also be the case that big brother has a number of smaller brothers aiding and abetting him.

Many large organizations are persuading members of the public to give them personal information, wittingly or unwittingly.

The pervasive presence of the Internet and search engines which have now consolidated into a handful of very large players are now in a position to gather an enormous amount of indicative data from users.

Google is a case in point, with hundreds of millions of searches being conducted on its database every day, and an impressive battery of technology and technicians to massage the data in practically any way they think fit, they will soon know more about you than your mother.

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Is Big Brother Outsourcing?

There are uncanny links between Google and government agencies such as the CIA who form part of the big brother watch.

These range from databases of images acquired from surveillance in the sky to corporate acquisitions of companies that were initially set up with CIA funds.

Google appears to adopt the same way of hiding its corporate face as many governments do theirs.

There are a number of secret or semi-secret rules that Google only hints at which lead to disbarring of web sites in the global system, should a webmaster infringe on such rules.

Google also knows more and more not only about who you are, but also where you are, with its geo-localization technology.

It’s a small step from Google data collection to Google illicit data sharing with entities that have no legal justification for peeking at such data collected on individuals.

It’s another nail in the coffin of civil liberties, waiting to be hammered in even further.

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Public or Private Watch, Big Brother Likes Both

Corporations in the retail business also practice vast data-collection operations, akin to the big brother watch.

Their tactic is to barter freebies and give-aways for individuals’ personal data such as names, addresses, date of birth, and any number of individual preferences.

Where data goes is not clear. Some corporations state that all data collected will be done while performing to the provisions of relevant data privacy acts.

Others are less forthcoming in their commitment to preserve the privacy of the individual participants.

Governments are well aware of the huge databases that are being built up by such corporate organizations, even those databases which exist temporarily to track purchases and to store customer identity in the case of purchase transactions and warranty.

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Pockets of Resistance to Big Brother

Several attempts have been made to force booksellers both large and small to hand over data about purchases made of a particular item, or made by a particular person to the big brother watch.

So far, companies such as Amazon have withstood such demands, which appeared to be in direct contravention of the First Amendment, but as such may only be in temporary exception to a growing general data collection family of big brothers and their siblings.

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