mike shupp wrote: “Businesses and social scientists have been rummaging through US census data for at least fifty years … And it’s hard to see any real problems.”

The article tells us what one of the real problems is: “In 2013, for instance, researchers showed that they could uncover the identities of supposedly anonymous participants in a genetic study simply by cross-referencing their data with publicly available genealogical information.”

Thus, these supposedly anonymous but now-known participants can be victimized in a number of ways, from loss of jobs because of genetic predispositions, to loss of healthcare because their genetics show a shorter than average actuarial lifespan — and according to Obamacare, your expected lifespan is a determinant as to whether you receive expensive treatments.

The reason that the U.S. Constitution explicitly protects our right to privacy is that privacy is important. When we hand over information about ourselves, it can — and will — be used against us and in favor of those who wish to dominate us. This was the very problem that the American colonists had with the Crown confiscating private papers and effects.

We may have laws preventing discrimination based upon race, sex, and other factors, but we do not have anti-discrimination laws based upon access to data, private or publicly available.

It does not much matter whether the government allows the data to be used; once it is collected, it is just as vulnerable as the data for government employees, which was hacked earlier this year. Or all it takes is one idiot who accidentally or purposefully exposes all the data.

Suppose you’re reading a history book that talks about income and literacy patterns in Baltimore and other colonial sites and compares them to London boroughs in the 1750’s. Surely the privacy of thousands of people has been abused! Does this cause you dismay? Or do you just shrug and absorb the data?

Granted, it’s going to be irritating if corporations run all this data through sophisticated computer software and discover you’re the only owner of a purebred Airedale in your neighborhood and start besieging you with special Buy-This-NOW offers for Airedale owners in your mail and every other popup ad on your cell phone. But no human mind is going to be involved in this harassment. It won’t be malicious. It’ll be for YOUR benefit! And for your cute little dog, of course.

As a side issue, there was a mandate in obamacare that medical records be made digital. You can guess where this is also leading.