What's your threat score?

[Vashta Nerada]

While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect's potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report.

In many instances, people have been unaware that the police around them are sweeping up information, and that has spawned controversy. Planes outfitted with cameras filmed protests and unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo. For years, dozens of departments used devices that can hoover up all cellphone data in an area without search warrants. Authorities in Oregon are facing an internal investigation after using social media-monitoring software to keep tabs on Black Lives Matter hashtags.
Officers could trawl a private database that has recorded more than 2 billion scans of vehicle licenses plates and locations nationwide.

"This is something that's been building since September 11," said Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "First funding went to the military to develop this technology, and now it has come back to domestic law enforcement. It's the perfect storm of cheaper and easier-to-use technologies and money from state and federal governments to purchase it."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/the-new-way-police-are-surveilling-you-calculating-your-threat-score/2016/01/10/e42bccac-8e15-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html

[TeeDub]

Mine's pretty low.   No gang affiliations or prior convictions, and I am an ardent tax payer.

That being said, I don't know why the police should know less about me than WalMart.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Mine's pretty low.   No gang affiliations or prior convictions, and I am an ardent tax payer.

That being said, I don't know why the police should know less about me than WalMart.

Bigger question - why should Walmart know as much about you as they do?

[BKDotCom]

Bigger question - why should Walmart know as much about you as they do?

Devil's advocate - why shouldn't Walmart know stuff about you?  (assuming you do business with them)
Don't want them to know as much? - Don't do business with them / use cash if you do.
Want them to know less still.   Use cash everywhere.
Credit Cards - the ultimate life-tracking "cookie"

We need an anonymous credit card.

[patric]

Mine's pretty low.   No gang affiliations or prior convictions, and I am an ardent tax payer.
That being said, I don't know why the police should know less about me than WalMart.

Probably a difference in accountability, and outcome.  When Walmart shows up at your door with armored vehicles then we can make that comparison.

The article provided a clue:
Nabarro said the fact that only Intrado — not the police or the public — knows how Beware tallies its scores is disconcerting. He also worries that the system might mistakenly increase someone's threat level by misinterpreting innocuous activity on social media...
The Fresno City Council called a hearing on Beware in November after constituents raised concerns. Once council member referred to a local media report saying that a woman's threat level was elevated because she was tweeting about a card game titled "Rage," which could be a keyword in Beware's assessment of social media.

Councilman Clinton J. Olivier, a libertarian-leaning Republican, said Beware was like something out of a dystopian science fiction novel and asked Dyer a simple question: "Could you run my threat level now?"

Dyer agreed. The scan returned Olivier as a green, but his home came back as a yellow, possibly because of someone who previously lived at his address, a police official said.

"Even though it's not me that's the yellow guy, your officers are going to treat whoever comes out of that house in his boxer shorts as the yellow guy," Olivier said. "That may not be fair to me."

[heironymouspasparagus]

Devil's advocate - why shouldn't Walmart know stuff about you?  (assuming you do business with them)
Don't want them to know as much? - Don't do business with them / use cash if you do.
Want them to know less still.   Use cash everywhere.
Credit Cards - the ultimate life-tracking "cookie"

We need an anonymous credit card.

Mostly rhetorical question...I use credit card almost exclusively - very little cash.  Just don't care.  What is even more interesting is the results when ya post a pic on Facebook...since they have the largest/best face recognition system in the world - they "tag" ya and people in your pics almost instantly.  Very fast!!