@jewjew123 I agree with you completely, that people are getting little too caught up in the idea that they are using the internet for mundane things and not thinking about the larger picture and ignoring the fact that the government just proved they are capable of abusing the system through the IRS scandal. This has such potential for bad. For example, imagine someone accidentally takes a tax deduction on raffle tickets they bought for a tzedakah fundraiser and then they get targeted for an audit. The auditor combs through your email records and see’s that you got a few emails stating that it was an auction and therefore not eligible for the deduction and boom you’re in trouble. Or, you hit a patch of black ice and get into a car accident, the insurance company asks the government for metadata on you and they see that the night before the accident you were on the internet at 3am and took a phone call at 7am, they deny your claim and say that you were exhausted and it was driver error not ice. Or you are denied health coverage for a preexisting condition because you googled the disease and symptoms before applying for insurance. These might be silly examples and certainly won’t happen tomorrow and may never happen, but this data collection can lead to problems big and small.
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