New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information
As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives – including their Social Security numbers… The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted a…notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users… 

Interview with Alex Pentland: Can We Use Big Data to Make Society Better?
In a SPIEGEL interview, American data scientist Alex Pentland discusses how data streams can be used to determine the laws of human interaction. He argues the information can be used to help forge better societies. …The use of Big Data is proving to be just as important to social scientists as the telescope once was for astronomers.