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LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

theintercept.com

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Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#101

Post by staticautomatic »

wefarrell wrote: post #10

It's pretty crazy that our legislators and courts haven't addressed this loophole that allows law enforcement agencies to buy data that they can't legally collect. This essentially nullifies the fourth amendment.

As someone who brokered Lexis PII in a past life, what scares me about this is how dirty the data are.

That said, it’s not a loophole. State and federal laws make certain data public or quasi-public for limited purposes, and I can’t think of any reason the government should be prohibited from buying it for one of those purposes. The fourth amendment is designed to prevent the government from collecting information that is distinguished as categorically private by definition.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#102

Post by bob_theslob646 »

staticautomatic wrote: post #101
wefarrell wrote: post #10

It's pretty crazy that our legislators and courts haven't addressed this loophole that allows law enforcement agencies to buy data that they can't legally collect. This essentially nullifies the fourth amendment.

As someone who brokered Lexis PII in a past life, what scares me about this is how dirty the data are. That said, it’s not a loophole. State and federal laws make certain data public or quasi-public for limited purposes, and I can’t think of any reason the government should be prohibited from buying it for one of those purposes. The fourth amendment is designed to prevent the government from collecting information th…

>" how dirty the data are."

What do you mean?

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#103

Post by bob_theslob646 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #25
wefarrell wrote: post #10

It's pretty crazy that our legislators and courts haven't addressed this loophole that allows law enforcement agencies to buy data that they can't legally collect. This essentially nullifies the fourth amendment.

> This essentially nullifies the fourth amendment. Courts seem to think that this information does not have an expectation of privacy since the user gave it away.

Is that because the user signed it away in the terms and conditions?

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#104

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #102
staticautomatic wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who brokered Lexis PII in a past life, what scares me about this is how dirty the data are. That said, it’s not a loophole. State and federal laws make certain data public or quasi-public for limited purposes, and I can’t think of any reason the government should be prohibited from buying it for one of those purposes. The fourth amendment is designed to prevent the government from collecting information th…

>" how dirty the data are." What do you mean?

This data is often of terrible quality. Source: I worked for the part of LN that deals with this data.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#105

Post by SQueeeeeL »

wyre wrote: post #88
Analemma_ wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

idlewords said a long time ago that "If the data is gathered at all, the government can get to it; whether it is on private or public servers is an irrelevant implementation detail. The only way to keep data out of government hands is to not collect it". Nobody wanted to listen to this because taking it seriously would mean tearing down large portions of the ad infrastructure that keeps the tech industry humming. But…

Who is idlewords?

A very quick Google search reveals they are a tech essayist

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#106

Post by TechBro8615 »

flangola7 wrote: post #96
TechBro8615 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is there to keep a food company from lying about the ingredients in their products? Food companies are not part of the "intelligence community," and there are significant disparities between enforcement of and compliance with the rules that each must follow. To the degree that food companies are even scared of the FDA (and not just willing to risk an inconsequential fine), it's because they know the FDA has st…

I'm hearing an awful lot of criticism and complaints but no suggested alternatives. My boss wouldn't accept that kind of pointless defeatism and neither do I.

The viable alternatives are too extreme for most people to stomach.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#107

Post by JohnFen »

constantly wrote: post #69
JohnFen wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in cases where the user has freely given out their information How often have people freely given their information? I'd argue that if you have to give out information in order to live, that doesn't count as freely giving it. That's being compelled to give it. In US society, it's literally impossible to live without giving your information to a variety of entities.

I freely give out my information when I choose to use Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, google maps while logged into google, sweetgreen for ordering for pick up, Uber eats while ordering for delivery. There are myriad of cases where people choose to give out their personal information — and yes before you protest: I can live without having my Sweetgreen ready when I arrive (versus ordering at the terminal when I arrive)…

I'm not at all talking about optional goods and services.

> I acknowledge there are cases where it’s effectively impossible in modern society, such as with giving out your info to get a cell phone

Or if you pay rent, own real estate or a car, buy anything using a method other than cash, have electrical or other utility service, etc.

You are forced to give out your information for almost everything you need in order to live in modern society.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#108

Post by droopyEyelids »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #15
droopyEyelids wrote: post #11

ALPR Automatic License Plate Readers are a significant portion of this article, and they raise a lot of questions in my mind. If the police have access to realtime info on the location of all vehicles, how is auto theft still a thing? How are gangs stealing $100k worth of tools from hardware stores and driving away scott free? Are we just at a time before wide use of the data ALPRs provide?

Maybe the stolen cars are taken to a chop shop or ditched before the owner even realizes it has been stolen.

In Chicago most stolen cars are used either to joyride or to do a theft of some kind. In both cases ALPRs would be useful to prevent it.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#109

Post by droopyEyelids »

phil21 wrote: post #28
NickC25 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it have access to sealed court records? I thought the whole point of "sealed" meant that the contents of the case were off-limits to the public for any and all reasons

Most cases are not sealed from the outset - so anything already out there is indexed forever, regardless of current legal status. This was the case at least when I looked into in ~20 years ago. There simply was no point in following the expungement process since all the usefulness of it was already gone due to the records existing in private databases.

Expungement is still useful (though less useful) because the record can no longer be used as a part of the legal process.

Re: LexisNexis is selling personal data to ICE so it can try to predict crimes

#110

Post by [deleted] »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #102
staticautomatic wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who brokered Lexis PII in a past life, what scares me about this is how dirty the data are. That said, it’s not a loophole. State and federal laws make certain data public or quasi-public for limited purposes, and I can’t think of any reason the government should be prohibited from buying it for one of those purposes. The fourth amendment is designed to prevent the government from collecting information th…

>" how dirty the data are." What do you mean?

[deleted]
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