DeFi and free and open source clients that users can modify/compile at will for whatever platform they are on, solves this.
Really cannot trust centralized entities with the incentives in place now.
The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
221–230 of 386 posts
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having an arrest on your record is enough to bar your from job and housing, even if charges were dropped or you were found not guilty. That alone is enough of a chilling effect to affect behavior: for example, staying away from protests or not questioning a police officer. Again, we are already there.
A criminal background check is not connected to your credit score and a convicted criminal charge is not the same as political dissent. Stop moving goal posts. I was arrested once and I got the charge expunged with community service. Hasn't affected my job applications so far.
A background check is run in addition to a credit check.
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#223We need a Supreme Court ruling or law that says if the government doesn’t have a warrant to collect your data, they also can’t buy it from third parties. We also need privacy protections so these companies wouldn’t exist in the first place.
If SCOTUS outlawed buying the data, they’d just find ways around that too. Maybe they’d just start creating apps and directly monitoring people. With an unlimited marketing and development budget, they could wind up on the majority of Americans’ phones pretty fast. Depending on the kinds of apps they created, they might get warrantless access to millions of bank accounts, text messages, emails, video conferences, ful…
You'd get industry screaming bloody murder faster than you can say 'Uncle Sam'. See why the NWS/NOAA are restricted in the weather products they can offer, and why a simplified tax filing option has been so long in coming.
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#224Unfortunately, this isn't really the Fed's buying their way around the 4th amendment as the article states: it's people selling away their 4th amendment rights by giving their personal data & right to resell it to companies that will sell to anyone with the cash to buy it.
Just to clarify: the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are separate things.
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The requirement of a subpoena doesn't prevent the government from taking actions that private actors could legally do Irrelevant. Gov wants data, Gov gets a narrowly targeted warrant first. Beyond this lies 4A violations.
> Irrelevant. Gov wants data, Gov gets a narrowly targeted warrant first. Beyond this lies 4A violations. No? What are you basing this off of?
Arizona v. Gant
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#226Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#227Unfortunately, this isn't really the Fed's buying their way around the 4th amendment as the article states: it's people selling away their 4th amendment rights by giving their personal data & right to resell it to companies that will sell to anyone with the cash to buy it.
I don't think much of the constitution but surely this goes against the spirit of the 4th amendment. It kind of defeats the whole purpose. The sale seems to be conducted under duress. Also, the way you frame it sounds wrong. You wouldn't expect it to be legally binding for someone to sell his constitutional right not to be made a slave, for (an extreme) example.
The easy way out would be to make such information not suitable as evidence. Perhaps exceptions will be made for cases when there's a clear risk to public safety. (such as prosecuting al capone)
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The requirement of a subpoena doesn't prevent the government from taking actions that private actors could legally do Irrelevant. Gov wants data, Gov gets a narrowly targeted warrant first. Beyond this lies 4A violations.
> Irrelevant. Gov wants data, Gov gets a narrowly targeted warrant first. Beyond this lies 4A violations. No? What are you basing this off of?
No... Government asks nicely, and business decides whether being a known narc will kill their business prospects, then either hand over the data, or ask the Government to pretty please get a warrant so they have an excuse.
Let's be realistic here.
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#229Unfortunately, this isn't really the Fed's buying their way around the 4th amendment as the article states: it's people selling away their 4th amendment rights by giving their personal data & right to resell it to companies that will sell to anyone with the cash to buy it.
As I understand it, that's not quite true. I can't get a phone provider that won't pen register my data off. It's not an option and it's entirely not practical to conduct life without a phone of some kind.
It is true when you're trying to mix pen register data into this. That is a completely different class of data that no law enforcement agency has to pay for or contract with an outside company to access, mixing apples & oranges from what the Treasury is purchasing.
The context of this story is data willingly given up by users through apps or websites that people give permission to use & resell. A decade ago or more there may have been more of an excuse for consumers: awareness of just what was tracked and how it was repackaged and sold on to other entities was not as well known. Now there is little excuse: If someone installs an app and hits "agree" to the data it wants to access, or clicks "okay" to the browser popups on sites that want their location, that's on them.
Data legally (if dubiously) collected explicitly for law enforcement purposes that still require a court order to access is a completely separate issue in terms of giving up 4th amendment rights.
Re: The U.S. Treasury is buying private app data to target and investigate people
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The requirement of a subpoena doesn't prevent the government from taking actions that private actors could legally do Irrelevant. Gov wants data, Gov gets a narrowly targeted warrant first. Beyond this lies 4A violations.
Can the government buy an autobiography I wrote detailing my crimes to help their investigation? Or is that a 4th amendment violation?
The Gov can acquire data that you - with full willful consent - have chosen to make publicly available. eg: public social media posts.