Over 26 million veterans had confidential data, including Social Security numbers and birthdates, stolen when a Veterans Affairs (VA) employee's home was burglarized. The employee had taken a laptop that contained the information home, and the laptop was then stolen.
The VA secretary said that medical and financial information was not compromised. However, because criminals can easily steal a person's identity (and financial information) if they have a person's name and Social Security number, consumer groups are now calling for Social Security numbers to be removed from at least 45 million Medicare and military cards -- a move that would cost more than $100 million.
Meanwhile, a former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst has written a commentary on the dwindling privacy of Americans, particularly as it relates to the scandal involving the NSA's illegal acquisition of Americans' phone records. This spying, he says, is putting the United States in danger.
Ironically, the Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will not investigate the allegations against the NSA (and AT&T's alleged involvement) because of the classified nature of the NSA's work.
It's no longer a secret that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been illegally collecting the phone call records of millions of Americans. Still, the American public has yet to react to this major scandal, signifying it is still not widely known how this spying is putting the United States in danger.
I highly recommend you read the commentary by former NSA analyst Ira Winkler. He points out several important ideas to consider:
Hopefully, you're as concerned as I am about the whittling down of privacy rights protected by the Fourth Amendment, under the guise of terrorism protection, and of potential breaches to personal security, like those now surrounding millions of veterans.
If you want to express your outrage at the major loss of personal privacy spurred by the NSA, you can let your congressman know about it.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving your privacy, has set up a form to do so. If you live in the United States it allows you to let your congressman know that you don't want them to "rubberstamp these wiretaps" that abrogate your constitutional freedoms.