Banks may be spying on their customers and helping the government invade your privacy.
 

  Also tells why you should be extremely careful with what information you give out like your social security number, or SS#.
 
 

  (a lot of this information I got from The Liberator OnLine)
 

  There was a government regulation that was supposed to go into effect on April 1st, 1999 i.c.c., that would require banks to spy on customers, compile dossiers on them, and report vaguely-defined "unusual activity" to federal police.

  Being called the 'Know Your Customer' rule, it would make banks treat every customer like a drug dealer.  Banks and credit unions would investigate where all of your money came from and study your transactions, going through every single one and compiling a file on what kind of activity you have.  Any deposit you make to your account that isn't a regular thing, whether it's just a bonus from work, a gift from a relative, or money you received from selling any of your property like a car, truck or whatever, will be regarded as unusual and will be reported to the government as being suspected of being money earned from drug sales.

  Libertarian Party national director Steve Dasbach, said that because of this: "...bank tellers can quiz you about where you got your money and how you plan to spend it. And if your answers sound suspicious, they can report you to federal law enforcement agencies. This law would turn every bank teller into a government informer and everyone with a bank account into a criminal suspect."

  The government supposedly wants to know all of your personal banking information because it wants to track down drug dealers and money launderers and any other illegal activity.  By law, they can make the banks give them all of your account information that the bank has happily compiled for them within two days and they don't even need a search warrant.  Also, if you're suspected of doing something illegal, the government can confiscate your entire account (if you don't know about the asset forfeiture laws yet that allow cops to take whatever they want from you if they even suspect you've used it in connection with drugs without having to charge you with anything or needing proof that you did, you're in for some surprises) and quite possibly all of your other accounts and property.  Can you imagine trying to prove your innocence in court over a period of years without any money for court costs or even living expenses like rent or food?!  Some people don't have to imagine this.  It's part of the nightmare that their life has become.  :-(  If anybody believes that the government considers people to be innocent until proven guilty or has any privacy anymore, they're only fooling themselves.

  I personally think that the government is invading our privacy way too much as it is by such things as selling our drivers license photos to businesses (the secret service even gave over a million dollars to one company to help them get started making a drivers license photo database for businesses to use and Congress helped arrange it.  The politicians that're supposed to represent us and protect our rights and all that only seem interested in making money off of us and screwing us over by helping others to invade our privacy.  It's bad enough we have to pay them to 'serve'.  Heck, they even vote themselves raises whenever they want to!), having to put our fingerprints on them as well as our social security numbers (how many people have seen your drivers license?  Every place you go to now seems to wanna know who you are, from your bank to the bouncer at the local bar, and naturally, you have to show them your drivers license.  Are you aware that a social security number is the only thing that your bank requires for identification on the phone to conduct transactions?  And that it's how a lot of the utility companies I know identify you as well.  All someone needs is that little 9 digit social security number that you allow people to see all the time wherever you go and they can make a few simple phone calls and leave you broke, sitting in a dark home with no lights or heat on a cold winter night!  As far as I know, people can even get credit cards using it and make up a huge debt for you and you wouldn't even know about it.  And yes, this has already happened to a lot of people), and spying on us with cameras mounted on traffic lights.  What's next?  Taking DNA samples (the military already does this and intends on keeping the samples on file forever) of people whenever they get arrested, or at birth (the baby hasn't even done anything wrong yet, and already she's being treated like a criminal!) or when the next time they go to a hospital or see their doctor?  I'm pretty sure that if they do take samples of people's DNA, they'll also be given out to insurance companies and a few other interested and nosy parties as well.  Or are they gonna do retinal or face recognition scans on us and encode it into identification cards?  The technology to do this stuff has been in existence for a while now.  The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't already in the works.

 

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