Data Centers: The Rockford Files Edition One of the shows my wife and I watch is The Rockford Files. Yeah, I know we're getting old, but this show is new to us. Being children of the 80's this was a show for adults back when it was on the air so only now in our middle age can we appreciate it. Last night's episode, season 4, Ep. 21: The House on Willis Avenue... * SPOILER ALERT * ... was basically about data centers. This wasn't obvious until the end. Well *a* data center. If Rockford and his new sidekick* didn't put a stop to it then the purpose of this data center would have been to spy on US citizens, to house as much personal information as possible, to track their activity, likes, dislikes, family and friends, etc..., you know the types of things I think about today when we hear the term "data center". *: Rockford had a sidekick in this episode, not sure if this new guy is going to be a regular or not going forward since these shows are all new to us. This two-part episode closed out with this message on screen: --- "Secret information centers, building dossiers on individuals exist today. You have no legal right to know about them, prevent them, or sue for damages. Our liberty may well be the price we pay for permitting this to continue unchecked. Member, U.S. Privacy Protection Commission" --- Not having heard of the "U.S. Privacy Protection Commission", after the show ended I went searching for it: Google, DuckDuckGo, turning off AI because it has no fucking clue what I'm talking about and making shit up (OHH You mean the Environmental Protection Agency!) Last night, I found no *real* matches to my query but, as if someone came in over the night and re-wrote history just for me, I did another search on DuckDuckGo this morning (exactly the same search as last night) and got exactly one result which is exactly relevant. URL: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED207923 What follows is the content so you don't have to leave gopherspace to read it. It's a summary of what is supposed to be a 21 page document detailing the commission and what it did but since the document itself can't be found (does it even exist?) this summary is all I have. --- "This paper examines how the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission functioned. Examined are its basic authority, procedures and policies, operational plan, distinctive features, staffing, and results of recommendations. Created by an act of Congress in 1974, the Commission was authorized to examine all actual and potential invasions of privacy in the private and public sectors. The group was staffed with social scientists with strong research backgrounds. The Commission was granted subpoena power, which, although it was only used a few times, undoubtedly encouraged prompt cooperation from those whom the Commission sought to involve. All investigations were based on the hearings process. This, coupled with the policy of inviting as witnesses the chief executive officers of the organization under investigation rather than lower ranking officials assured the Commission of the highest quality of hard data. The Commission's final report contained 162 recommendations on consumer credit, the depository relationship, mailing lists, insurance records, employment records, medical care records, investigative reporting, government access to records, education records, government assistance (welfare), the role of the states, the Privacy Act, income tax administration, research and statistics, and the Social Security number. An immediate reaction following the report was the introduction in Congress of some 200 bills incorporating the recommendations. This is especially noteworthy inasmuch as only one half of all commissions have any legislation introduced at all. Several of the bills passed. In addition, hundreds of public and private groups also implemented the recommendations voluntarily. (Author/RM)" --- This seems to be related to the Privacy Act of 1974 so I'm just now starting to learn more about that. But I can already say whatever successes that act had back then, those successess are all but evaporated today. What was about to happen in that Rockford Files episode seems pretty quaint by today's standards when that exact thing is happening in the open all over the U.S. and with governmental support. The most opposition there is to data centers today is about the usage of electricity and water as well as the noise pollution they produce. Very little is said of the loss of privacy because, by 2026, privacy is a relic of the past and I guess no feels the need to protect it. Present company (us gophernauts) excluded, of course :) .