No More Hide in Plain Sight (Redux)

A year ago I wrote about how simply participating in the digital age creates a virtual trail of bread crumbs that can lead to a fairly detailed individual profile.

File it under the heading, "there's nothing new under the sun," but Raytheon recently released a data mining tool called Rapid Information Overlay Technology, or RIOT that makes the aggregation and analysis of those crumbs a lot easier. Given Raytheon's status as one of the leading contractors to the U.S. federal government and, in particular, the Department of Defense, and you don't have to be named Kreskin to predict who the target market for RIOT might be.

It's good to remind ourselves from time to time that, as much fun as social networking can be, there's still no such thing as a free lunch. And while we may blanch at the notion that commercial entities are scrutinizing our every digital move in hopes of selling us something, it's more concerning to me to think that my government may be/is doing the same thing, but for reasons more sinister and insidious.

Now, if you'll excuse me... I need to find where my wife keeps the Reynolds Wrap so I can go fashion myself a new toque.