In this "smart" and digitized world, nearly everything we do could be captured, stored, and made accessible to the government. The time we wake up (using our phone's alarm), the places we go (using our car's built- in GPS), the news stories we read, the snacks we purchase for our kids, the route of our daily run, and even the temperature we prefer to keep our homes is routinely collected and stored by commercial companies. Normally, the government cannot access that information, absent a manual process like issuing a subpoena, obtaining a search warrant, or making a formal, emailed request to a company for customer information. The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) consolidated audit trail (CAT) system threatens to change all of that by collecting data on every stock and options trade made in the United States and personally identifying information of the individual who made the trade. The CAT system gives government agencies a blueprint for pervasive and constant government surveillance:
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- United States of America
