The Colorado Springs Gazette editorial: State government will track our purchases
A consumer who buys sex toys might be embarrassed if the shopping habit showed up on a report at the Colorado Department of Revenue. It could be damaging.
At a time when government employees are prone to leak information that is supposed to be locked away in a file drawer, it is easy to visualize a state employee anonymously posting evidence to the internet of a politician’s shopping spree at RealLoveSexDolls.com or TransgenderZone.com. Even innocuous purchases of common items should not be known to file clerks and bureaucrats.
Only the imagination limits the assortment of retail transactions consumers would not want the state to know about. Individuals have traditionally enjoyed private purchases, online or at brick-and-mortar stores, without retailers reporting them by name and address to the state.
Few Coloradans have any idea this will change soon, regarding their online purchases, because of a conflict that began seven years ago.
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