COLLECTING MORE DATA THAN YOU THINK

The Virginian-Pilot
© June 20, 2013

COLLECTING MORE DATA THAN YOU THINK

FOR 60 YEARS, the National Security Agency has been protecting the United States against foreign threats. Now, however, the NSA has focused on threats within the United States.

The Patriot Act and other laws have turned the financial industry into a massive data-collection arm of the government. Financial advisers are required to collect and submit volumes of data on our clients into searchable databases, ostensibly used to fight terrorism.

I just completed a project that was allegedly mandated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. It required 85 data points for every client registration. Data such as the name, address, Social Security number and date of birth have always been required, but now we collect and submit data such as the client's cash on hand, net worth, income, job title, employer and employer's address. I uploaded 52,000 data points on my clients onto a secure server on the Internet.

Knowing these requirements and that over half of all Americans have some type of financial investment, it's hard to imagine that the NSA or some other shadow government agency hasn't found a way to capture this data for future use. Years ago, this type of information was kept on paper, locked in filing cabinets and presented upon inspection. Now this data is very easily searchable.

This data collection is excessive and intrusive. The requirement that it now be available in databases is fraught with everyday security risks, let alone potential government or corporate abuse.

David Beemer
Virginia Beach

 

Congressman Scott is Right - Metadata will be abused

For sixty years the NSA has been protecting the US against foreign threats.  The huge flap now seems to be that external NSA efforts have become an internal effort since the 9-11 attacks.

Not being reported is how the Patriot Act and other regulations have turned the financial industry into a massive data collection arm of the government.  Advisers are required to collect and submit volumes of data on our clients into searchable data bases ostensibly to fight terrorism by knowing your client and preventing money laundering.  I just completed a project that was allegedly mandated by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) which required 85 data points for every client registration.  Data such as the name, address, SSN, DOB has always been required but now we collect and submit data such as cash on hand, net worth, income, job title, employer, employer's address, etc...  For me it was over 52,000 data points which was uploaded to a secure server via the internet.

Knowing these requirements and that over half of all American's have some type of investment, it's hard to imagine that the NSA, CIA, DIA, I and A, FBI, INR, TFI or some other shadow government agency hasn't found a way to capture this META data for "future" use.  Years ago this data was kept on paper, locked in filing cabinets and presented upon inspection but due to changing requirements this data is now very much searchable.

I would argue this data collection is excessive, intrusive and the requirement that it now be available in database format fraught with everyday security risks, let alone potential government and/or corporate abuse.

David Beemer

Virginia Beach, VA
Investment Registered Representative since 1993