UPS (united parcel service) knows everything about you !

[YYV_146]

The internet is only a small part of this. Retailers can track your purchasing habits, sure... but if you've ever had a car loan, a house mortgage or applied for a credit card, either singly or jointly with your spouse or ex-spouse, owned real property, bought an insurance policy that lists your heirs, lived in a country with birth, death, marriage, and divorce records, that data lives out there in your credit reports... co-creditors, children, spouses, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth...

disc drive storage never forgets, and collates data at nearly the speed of light. There are a dizzying array of databases that are becoming more and more interactive. THAT is what "BIG DATA" is.

Fortunately, I don't have a car (in the U.S) or my own house because I move way too much, and still hasn't gotten married yet...

But I agree, the search sphere is not exclusive to online records. But I will say that the online bits are the most frightening ones, and while we may work hard to build up credit, our activities online are usually much less monitored by ourselves - which is ultimately more dangerous.

 

[daveleo]

FWIW, as I said, I got an e-mail from a photo retailer (that we all know and love) about the UPS link to track my package. I clicked that link in the email and it sent me to the UPS page below. I clicked the CONTINUE button and the rest is history ...
.

Realize that whether or not you click that button is irrelevant..,.. They already have the data !!!.
.

 

[Ranchu]

"We kill people based on metadata." - Michael Hayden

 

[Ranchu]

"The NSA treats all content intercepted incidentally from third parties as permissible to retain, store, search and distribute to its government customers. Raj De, the agency’s general counsel, has testified that the NSA does not generally attempt to remove irrelevant personal content, because it is difficult for one analyst to know what might become relevant to another."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...39adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html

 

[willie_901]

This information was available by manually searching public records long before Big a Data.

The difference is none of it could be quickly accessed or shared. When someone really wanted to know everything they could about so one, they physically traveled to courthouses, etc and manually recorded the data.

The obvious and significant difference is public records are digitized and instantly shared by anyone who pays a very small fee.

 

[semilog]

Wow. No like! There ARE ways to make yourself invisible on the web though. Using a proxy browser like TOR is a good way to go, which "works by passing your traffic through several unrelated computers all over the Internet, using cryptography to keep the origin, destination, and intermediary steps secret from each computer it passes through".

Which then gets you flagged for extra attention by the NSA. Good times.

And then, of course, there's this.

 

[Brian Atherton]

As an aside to the main issue of privacy in this thread, does anyone know for certain whether UPS has a ban on their employees wearing beards?

A couple of years ago a friend told me of this ‘fact’ and since, I’ve noticed none of the UPS delivery drivers here in the UK I’ve seen when out and about sport facial hair.

Is this just a scurrilous or an apocryphal story?

 

[lynnb]

Dave, it is usually a shock to discover what Big Data actually means… to you. Welcome to the real world.

Of course, this is all done to ensure your safety. I hope you feel safer now 🙂

 

[daveleo]

Dave, it is usually a shock to discover what Big Data actually means… to you. Welcome to the real world.

Of course, this is all done to ensure your safety. I hope you feel safer now 🙂

Indeed I do, Lynn .... slept like a baby last night knowing that Big Data is watching over me 😀

If I forget anything about my past, I can just call UPS and ask them !!

 

[kshapero]

I've never had UPS ask me to create an account to track a package. Just tried it now. Maybe there was an (non-obvious, of course) option to skip the login?

Never had this problem. Never been asked to sign up. That being said, I am sure they can find out anything about me. I once looked myself up on one of these snoop web sites. Sh*t, it had info on my dad from 1956!!😱

 

[Bill Clark]

UPS doesn't bother me. I like receiving the info.

What I worry about is how Michael Rennie from, "The Day The Earth Stood Still," is looking at my stuff! I'm waiting to wake up one day and Gort is at my front door.

 

[Carterofmars]

Big Data Is Here.

Don't worry everyone. Big Data will be used for good. It is good. Double good plus.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-big-data-can-transform-society-for-the-better/

http://www.winshuttle.com/big-data-timeline/

 

[noisycheese]

Here ya go, folks: FaceApple and GoogleHoo have served us up on a platter to the powers that be:

http://scgnews.com/they-were-lying-...ed-full-assistance-in-domestic-spying-program

...Don't worry everyone. Big Data will be used for good. It is good. Double good plus....

[SARCASM] Well, of course: There is nothing to worry about. Powermongering, psychopath politicians and anonymous, faceless billionaires always have the best interests of the working man and woman at heart. [/SARCASM] 🙄