It seems we can't get through a week anymore without some type of "scam alert".  The latest, in this week's Town and Country, tells us that scammers are imitating the PA Treasury Department with sophisticated phishing emails targeting Pennsylvanians.

            Treasurer Stacy Garrity warns us that these criminals will pull out all the stops to commit fraud and advises that if you have doubts about an email claiming to be from the PA Treasury Department, here's the most important tip: Do not click any links and do not share any personal information.

            And always remember: Treasury will never seek personal information through an unsolicited email."

            It brought to mind a recent report about how Federal agencies are accumulating mountains of data on all of us.  Of course, that data is secure and nobody can steal it.  Well, we know that isn't true.

            Read the report here: www.documentcloud.org/documents/23844477-odni-declassified-report-on-cai-january2022.

            It seems like officials have replaced the Fourth Amendment right of Americans "to be secure … against unreasonable searches and seizures" with "Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear."

            Something called Commercially Available Information (CAI) is constantly polling our smartphones, computers, and other trackers and digital devices.  Sometimes we offer that information up voluntarily (especially when not reading the terms of what we're signing up for) and often our data is just scooped up from not-so-secure websites and social media sites.

            Computers are wonderful things.  They can just be programmed to poll the internet and other servers looking 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for any of your information that is not secure – they don't need your permission.  Heck, most of the time you don't even know it's happening.

            The recently declassified reports that the government would have never been permitted to compel billions of people to carry devices to track and log most personal and social interactions or to keep flawless records of all of their reading habits.

            But, that's what's happening with CAI. And, they cover which of your information is up for sale – usually all of it.  

            It raises significant privacy and perhaps civil liberties issues.  CAI is growing fast and has become a significant part of the information environment making it readily accessible for sale to marketers, advertisers, the U.S. government, hackers, identity thieves, and maybe even foreign governments.

            Government officials have to navigate an array of laws that often prevent them from tracking Americans without a court order or warrant.  But, not so much if they buy the information from CAI.  According to the report, they do.  Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) was quoted as saying. "If the government can buy its way around Fourth Amendment due process, there will be few meaningful limits on government surveillance."

            More likely than not, the information you think you are submitting online or on social media is not as secure as you think it is.

            We are at a new point in American history and our government needs to stop playing footsies with big tech companies to spy on their own people.

            So, be careful when you're on that keyboard.