Tag: privacy

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Dissing Cash

New poll results from the Pew Research Center show a large decrease in Americans’ use of cash in the last seven years. Forty-one percent of individuals asked by Pew in July about all their purchases “in a typical week (including things like groceries, gas, services, or meals)” indicated that they used cash to pay for none of those purchases. This is a big increase from just seven years ago. In answer to the same Pew query in 2015, the cashless spenders came in at 24 percent.

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Apple’s Descent from Privacy Hero to Privacy Villain

In 2016, I, along with some other privacy advocates including writer and commentator Andrew Napolitano, was applauding Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook for standing up for privacy and the United States Constitution in a situation that pitted his company against the power of the United States government and the desire of many Americans to seek information related to a mass shooting. Five years later, Apple has decided that, in the name of countering child pornography, it will throw privacy protection for all its customers out the window.

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Andrew Napolitano Warns of Privacy Threat from Government Cameras and Facial Recognition

In a Wednesday Fox News video commentary, former New Jersey state Judge Andrew Napolitano describes the great privacy invasion capability of government entities in Great Britain using many cameras along with facial recognition software and databases of personal information. Further, notes Napolitano, the use of facial recognition by police for surveillance has already been approved in court in Britain. “The people in Great Britain have lost their right to be left alone,” asserts Napolitano.

“Tough for the British,” some Americans may say, “but there are privacy protections that will prevent that from happening in America.” However, Napolitano, who is the senior judicial analyst for Fox News, explains that “sadly” the same thing “has begun to happen here” in America. Napolitano points to facial recognition software being acquired by police in New York City, Chicago, and Orlando, as well as in “smaller police departments around the United States.”

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