This is Backstory. I'm Brian Ballow. The bulk collection of all Americans phone records

all of the time is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Three years after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed secret government surveillance

programs and with the new Hollywood movies Snowden and theaters, Americans are wondering

how much surveillance is too much. Today we're looking at how previous generations have

answered that question. In the 1880s a new credit ratings agency and its secret informers

raised a lot of eyebrows. The response of the company was essentially to say our correspondents

are the finest men in every community in America. Trust us. A history of personal data collection

today on Backstory.

Major funding for Backstory is provided by the ShiaCon Foundation, the National Endowment

for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur Vining

Davis Foundations. From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, this is Backstory

with the American History Guys. Welcome to the show. I'm Ed Ayers and I'm here with Brian Ballow.

Hey, I'm Peter Onough. In 1855 a New York City office received a tip from rural Virginia.

It concerned a local fellow named Robert Brown.

October 16th 1855, Brown is one of nature's best sons that takes things as they are and does not

push about anything. We do not mean that he is a lazy or slavvently man. No, he is a nice

good gentleman, a little liable to be imposed on by sorry men that profess to be gentleman.

This tip was duly noted in tiny handwriting on one of the pages of an enormous folio volume.

Six months later there was another tip. They report that he is a large land and negro holder,

meaning he owns a lot of land and he owns a lot of slaves. He's an extravagant liver.

Much in debt, considered very good for debts, indeed he is considered rich, high-minded and

...