How Elizabeth Warren's Privacy Rules Will Fight the Corporate Snoops

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http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-ways-sen-warrens-no-credit-checks-hiring-bill-helps-all-us

1. It aids the long-term unemployed.

Long-term unemployment is at historically high levels in this country, and policymakers have done far too little for this hard-hit group of Americans. They have experienced the ongoing loss of their way of life - often accompanied by the loss of their homes, their belongings, and their sense of self-worth.

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2. It begins to right a terrible injustice.

One of the great injustices of the past five years is the way that Wall Street, whose fraud caused the current economic crisis, still holds enormous power over its victims.

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3. It also begins to level the playing field between Wall Street and ordinary Americans.

Financial institutions enjoy extraordinary, even unprecedented power over individual Americans. A consumer's relationship with a bank is no longer even the semblance of a contract between autonomous equals. It's an asymmetrical relationship in which one party - the bank - can unilaterally change the terms of the agreement, in many cases leaving the consumer with no recourse.

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4. It reduces the ongoing encroachment of Big Data on our daily lives.

The computer crowd likes to say that "Information wants to be free." We've learned now that it actually wants to be very, very expensive - and it's not interested in whether you remain free. Big Data is a self-sustaining and self-expanding institution which seeks to maximize profits by finding new markets for the information it gathers.