A major credit card company has changed their rules with cardholders that allow them access that not even the government can have without obtaining a warrant from a judge.
Capital One issued an update saying “we may contact you in any manner we choose” and specifies that in addition to calls, emails, texts or faxes the company can pay you a “personal visit.”
The visits are specified to be both at the cardholder’s home or their place of employment.
Government organizations such as the Internal Revenue Service are prohibited from visiting your home without an arrest warrant.
Lawyers specializing in illegal-search cases say the Constitution only applies to law enforcement so it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to stop Capital One on grounds it violates a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The company’s agreement also states they are allowed to use fake Caller ID information in attempts to reach consumers. That means they can create bogus charitable organizations such as Disabled Children Fund and use that to identify themselves on home and cell phones.
Capital One officials say that despite the ominous language in the agreement, they will not be visiting the homes of customers unless the items are large ticket items like snowmobiles or Jet Skis.
A spokesman for Capital One said they are reviewing the language.
In an attempt to find federal workers who were cheating the government, U.S. agencies ended up examining people who had no direct connection to the U.S. government and had only purchased books on an alert list.
Federal investigators reportedly gathered a list of 4,904 people from the records of two men who were being examined for teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then gave the list to 30 federal agencies including the IRS, CIA, NSA and Food & Drug Administration. The government hoped to find employees or applicants who tried to use techniques to beat lie detector tests required for security clearances.
McClatchy News Service reports that many of the people investigated by the government agencies after the release of the list had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and received no one-on-one training from the suspects.
A source says that federal agencies are under increasing pressure from the White House to find “insider threats” in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA scandal.
More information is coming out regarding the IRS scandal that had the agency targeting conservative groups and Christian organizations.
An Iowa pro-life group has reported the IRS told them that they could not protest or picket any Planned Parenthood organization if they wanted to be granted 501(c)3 non-profit status. Continue reading →
