I am not usually one to jump on, or develop conspiracy theories, but this one bears watching. I spend a lot of time on the road for my job. Because of this, the radio advertisements for XM Satellite Radio piqued my interest. For an only ten bucks a month subscription fee, you get a hundred channels of pure sounding digital music, talk, or sports. It sounded great, more choices than standard FM, and maybe some of my favorite AM talk shows minus the static and interference. So I started looking into it, and what I found was shocking and disturbing. XM Satellite Radio and the Canadian version of digital radio is a two way street. They can monitor your every move. The Canadian version even brags about the fact that they know when you are driving by a McDonald's, so they can flash an elctronic "Coupon" on the receiver's LCD display for free fries with the purchase of a burger. I think it can go much deeper than this. The digital radio knows your location by triangulation, by which towers are communicating with your receiver. XM uses satellite technology....can you say G.P.S. ? One of the fastest growing modern industries is data mining; finding, extracting, and re-selling personal data. By signing and up paying the ten bucks a month, you are selling your soul to the devil. They will know your daily commute routine, including your stop at Dunkin' Donuts, where and when you buy gas and groceries and clothes, etc. You will then be inundated with more junk mail, spam e-mail, and telemarketing phone calls than you can stand. In these days where our freedoms and privacy are already at risk in an effort to prevent terrorism, do you really want to be a willing accomplice in giving up your freedoms? NOT ME, BROTHER!!! How long before government agencies use this technology to snoop on citizens....who they associate with, how often they buy alcohol and/or tobacco, trips to the casino, where and when they go to church, maybe the frequent trips to the gun shop or shooting range? How about traffic tickets by mail because the G.P.S. in your XM receiver reported you doing 75 in a 65 zone? It's bad enough big brother is already watching, I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay someone for the priviledge!!
Written, edited, and produced by David LaPorte on 08-14-02. Permission is hereby granted for this commentary to be freely reproduced, printed, and distributed, unedited and in it's entirety, with full credit given to the author.