U.S. May Restrict Sale of Social Security Numbers

Here we go again. U.S. Lawmakers have decided to try and put together a bill to protect you and me from information companies selling our private information on the open market. They want to create a law that would require these data-mining companies to get your permission before they sell your social security number to a private party. From a Yahoo News story:

Government-issued social security numbers are considered the key to identity-theft scams because they are frequently used as unique identifiers by banks and other companies that handle sensitive information, such as medical records.

"This is an industry still in denial, that still doesn't recognize how highly Americans value their privacy, and hopes to ride out this scandal," said Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, who has already introduced such a bill.

I ask you, how out of touch with reality are these lawmakers? "...doesn't recognize how highly Americans value their privacy" I don't "highly value" my privacy, I demand that my right to privacy not be violated, period. I don't want to get ripped off because some jerk hacks a database and steals my personal information. In my opinion, if some data-mining company has my personal information in their database, I'm already a victim of identity theft.

And another thing, from the quote above, "Government-issued social security numbers are considered the key to identity-theft scams because they are frequently used as unique identifiers by banks and other companies that handle sensitive information, such as medical records." Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm not), but weren't we all told that the social security number was not to be used as a form of identification? And here we see the very opposite happening. It's that whole "war is peace" thing.

Wait, we're not done yet. Drum roll, please. And now, for the police-state loop hole: Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, said "he would probably carve out an exemption for police investigations." The lawmakers don't want to hinder the access of the police state to your information, just private industry. After all, they're the biggest customers of these data-mining companies. The lawmakers are just tightening up access to your information. They never intended for these data-mining companies to sell your information to the private sector. They were set up so that government, via private companies, could keep tabs on all Americans. They just found a convenient way to "kick out" the private sector customers. Welcome to "The New America! You are free, as long as you obey!"