Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 88 posts

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#31

Post by kgwxd »

cimaster wrote: post #11

The irony of npr.org welcoming me with "We and our 474 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device." 474!!!

Not ironic, unfortunate reality. I'm annoyed npr and 474 use personal data for profit. It should be illegal. I'm terrified the government uses personal data without checks on the use case. Especially since it is illegal, and they just don't care about that. Or there's a loophole, or whatever, and they just don't care how The People will react to them using it, which is just as terrifying.

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#33

Post by lesuorac »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23
samrus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but the possession itself of that data without a warrant violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment. So its time that loophole was closed so its not a an issue anyway I actually would be fine with the authorities having the ability to process this data to solve crime and stuff, but only as long as there were checks and balances and it was happening according to the constitution, which it is not right now

> possession itself of that data without a warrant violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment Does it? An 18th-century tavern owner could keep tabs on the comings and goings of their customers. It would have just prompted pushback when they started sharing that list. Possession isn’t the problem. Sharing is.

I feel like the example you want is a Video store owner could store a list of what movies congressmen rented.

Which was trivially not covered by the 4th amendment [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#34

Post by troupo »

cimaster wrote: post #11

The irony of npr.org welcoming me with "We and our 474 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device." 474!!!

Some of those "partners" may be storing your precise geolocation for 12 years: https://x.com/dmitriid/status/1817122117093056541

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#35

Post by xtiansimon »

I heard this on the radio this morning. The NPR story reported the danger as individual’s PII can be combined through the power of AI.

I remarked how curious it is that wondrous AI should be the technology people need to experience before they can imagine the dangers of Data Brokers and the Mother Of All Databases (MOAD).

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#36

Post by neoCrimeLabs »

I expected years ago that the government, at some point, would realize if they are interested in the data that they could purchase, other nation states would be as well and could use it against us. Therefore the logical conclusion would be to declare collection and sale of such data to be a matter of national security and strongly restrict it as such.

The detail I failed to understand at the time was just how much money there is in data collection and brokerage.

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#37

Post by rexpop »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23
samrus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but the possession itself of that data without a warrant violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment. So its time that loophole was closed so its not a an issue anyway I actually would be fine with the authorities having the ability to process this data to solve crime and stuff, but only as long as there were checks and balances and it was happening according to the constitution, which it is not right now

> possession itself of that data without a warrant violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment Does it? An 18th-century tavern owner could keep tabs on the comings and goings of their customers. It would have just prompted pushback when they started sharing that list. Possession isn’t the problem. Sharing is.

Government is that institution in our society which possesses a monopoly on violence and should be held to a higher standard than a tavern keeper.

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#38

Post by Propelloni »

dekken_ wrote: post #26
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> possession itself of that data without a warrant violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment Does it? An 18th-century tavern owner could keep tabs on the comings and goings of their customers. It would have just prompted pushback when they started sharing that list. Possession isn’t the problem. Sharing is.

No, the bar owner has a right know who's in his bar. The local or federal government do not have the right, or need to know the whereabouts of the average law abiding citizen. There is no "free" information, all information has a cost, whether it be acquisition or storage. Currently the people are taxed to oppress themselves. There is no choice not to be taxed, there is no consent.

[flagged]

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#39

Post by lukan »

neoCrimeLabs wrote: post #36

I expected years ago that the government, at some point, would realize if they are interested in the data that they could purchase, other nation states would be as well and could use it against us. Therefore the logical conclusion would be to declare collection and sale of such data to be a matter of national security and strongly restrict it as such. The detail I failed to understand at the time was just how much mo…

The other detail you missed was, that this world is mostly not run by sane governments that do the rational thing you would expect from them.

Re: Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk

#40

Post by dekken_ »

Propelloni wrote: post #38
dekken_ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the bar owner has a right know who's in his bar. The local or federal government do not have the right, or need to know the whereabouts of the average law abiding citizen. There is no "free" information, all information has a cost, whether it be acquisition or storage. Currently the people are taxed to oppress themselves. There is no choice not to be taxed, there is no consent.

[flagged]

You don't understand consent, lots of people don't vote.

And even if they do, they don't automatically consent to all actions performed in their name.

Post reply on HN