Why We Have No Data Privacy in the U.S.

June 22, 2023

by Karl Denninger Market-Ticker.org

This is pretty-simple: The Federal Government, via various agencies, is buying your data which all falls under the “other commercial purposes” statement in the “Terms Of Service” you signed up for with your phone, your social media account and everything else.

This is wildly in violation of the intent of the 4th Amendment yet it is exactly the same sort of dodge that the US Park Service just served up on Great Smoky Mountains National Park patrons starting this year in the form of a requirement to buy a “parking pass” to pull off into any of the parking areas — a dodge around the negotiated deal when the park was formed between the Park Service and both Tennessee and North Carolina which stated that the Park Service could not charge entry fees — that is, “toll the road.”

Thus the GSMNP is the only National Park where there is no entry fee. But in a particularly-odious slap in the face GSMNP also refuses to honor The National Parks Passes that many Americans buy on an annual (or for Seniors and a few others, lifetime) basis. That is, if you have a National Parks Pass its worthless when it comes to parking to take some pictures or hike in that, and only that, National Park; it is good everywhere else.