FBI: Copper Thefts Threaten U.S. Infrastructure > Theft

said by RayW:

As far as moonpuppy's comment, requiring proof of identity to sell scrap metal is a violation of privacy, it is just one more step toward more taxes when doing business and gives the government more power over your life (the folks who do scrap metal transactions use the same arguments that people against internet and phone monitoring do).

Personally, I am all for positive ID of people selling high value scrap metal and identification of the type and form of the metal. But those within a few hundred miles of the southern border will still have the problem since the thieves just take it across and sell/trade it.

said by moonpuppy:

How is it a violation of privacy? The people choose to make money recycling metal. If they don't want to show ID when they turn in stuff for cash then they need to find something else to do.

said by RayW:

Hey moon, I said what I have heard. There are otherwise honest people who do not want to be monitored by the government when they sell, buy, talk, or for other aspects of life.

My take is, if you go outside your house, you have no expectation of privacy, especially with today's accelerating technological miniaturization and processor enhancements, and that is even dubious.

said by moonpuppy:

I still do not see where it is a violation of privacy.

said by RayW:

The Gov knows what you are doing.....A lot of people think that what you do is private business and not the Gov's, talk on the phone, buy something, sell something, no one else needs to know.

Yet all of the above can be done for nefarious reasons, do you violate privacy for them or do you lock down privacy for the honest and ignore the bad?

said by moonpuppy:

O.k. the loss of privacy has been gone for several decades now. Your phone records, your financial statements, your day to day life is available with the click of a mouse and it is not always the government doing it. Living "off the grid" is very close to impossible. You have a house, the government and private business knows about it. You have a job, they know what you make. Get the picture?

Because a few bad apples (scrappers and scrap yard owners both), we now need a way to track where all this stolen copper is going.

Once you do business with someone who does have to report to the government, you lose that privacy.