Just Opt Out

As the ability grows of the government and the private sector to "data mine" and track what we do, where we are and what our preferences are, I think it is advisable to start opting out of all of this.

You opt out by paying cash for things. You go to grocery stores that don't use those stupid "affinity cards". You don't use the "member discounts" and "buyer's clubs" in stores. You pay cash, and if you might want to take the item back, you keep the receipt. You buy books, either in new bookstores or second-hand bookstores.

You shut your cellphone off unless you want to make a call. Up until cellphones started to get cheap a decade or so ago, people got along just fine without having a telephone with them 24/7. People actually made trips without needing to make calls as they sped across I-80.

You throw the "EZ-Pass" into a tinfoil bag and go through the toll booths. But even that may not help, as companies are developing license plate readers that will scan all passing license plates. (That technology is being developed for police cars; the computers will automatically run checks on every plate the scanners see. )

And you buy as little as possible online.

The Bush/Cheney Surveillance Society depends, in part, on our compliance with using those tools of modern life. It is nobody's business but yours what books you read or what movies you go to see or what groceries you buy. But the only way, now, that you can make sure it remains nobody's business is to deny the dataminers the ability to go after your particular vein of ore.

If you want to maintain your freedom to be left alone and your freedom to do what you choose without being monitored by the Surveillance Society, you are going to have to start making it harder for them to track you.

Just opt out.