01-07-2006, 08:56 AM
Article explains how a combination of Amazon Wishlists, Google Maps, and free software could be used by anyone to create detailed profiles of hundreds of thousands of Americans and monitor groups of people.
full article: http://www.applefritter.com/bannedbooks
Quote:It used to be you had to get a warrant to monitor a person or a group of people. Today, it is increasingly easy to monitor ideas. And then track them back to people.... an individual with access to the internet can still develop a fairly sophisticated profile of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens using free and publicly available resources. Here's an example.
There are many websites and databases that could be used for this project, but few things tell you as much about a person as the books he chooses to read...
Amazon wishlists...By default these lists are public and available to anybody who searches by name...The wishlist creator's city and state are made public on the wishlist, but the street address remains private
Thanks to Google Maps (and many similar services) a street address is all we need to get a satellite image of a person's home...
full article: http://www.applefritter.com/bannedbooks