So here’s the list of Prepaid Credit Cards I will be investigating and detailing the conditions and requirements:

• GreenDot
• WebSecret
• Vanilla Visa
• Privacash
• All-Access Gift Card

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• Simon Gift Card

If anyone can think of anymore I should review, please let me know. Reviews on the above cards coming in January. I’m afraid however the news won’t be good. Most cards all appear to be checking for SSN’s and verifying them due to the Patriot Act.

I’ll keep you posted.

The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

Wow, so it really is an Orwellian society we live in. And I bet that NSA wiretapping program was NEVER performed on civilians of the United States, right? Just terrorist threats overseas as the Bush administration has claimed. Awareness of this type of behavior must be increased dramatically or things will never change and we will never again have civil liberties. We live in a society where the government and politicians rule the constituency’s out of fear, uncertainty and doubt (also known as FUD). The Patriot Act was passed as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 and was renewed because no one wanted to stand up and be the one Senator or Representative that did not want to stop the “War on Terror”.

While the majority of subpoena’s issued were indeed for legitimate counterterror cases, over 8,800 of the 143,074 issues were not even recorded or documented in FBI database. The FBI also failed to report accurate numbers to Congress as to the actual number of national security letters delivered to companies requesting personal data. In these letters the FBI used it’s standard issue bully tactics to get the information it needed.

The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

As many privacy experts have been stressing for quite a while, the Patriot Act is not preventing terror, just like the Real ID Act will not prevent terror. While some proponents of the two acts will claim that while there is not 100% prevention, the reduction in potential terrorist threats far outweigh the negative repercussions. I disagree. How many civil liberties and personal freedoms do Americans have to give up before someone finally notices and takes a stand. I for one am not going to sit around and wait for that day. It’s time to take a stand now.