An American Privacy Emergency • Hacker News Board

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#51

Post by janalsncm » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:26 AM UTC

Fomite wrote: post #23

alexpotato wrote: post #18

One of my favorite recently learned facts about Congress: Federally mandated parental leave (paternity and maternity leave) polls at about 80% in favor with the US adult population. This is regardless of political affiliation, by the way. Democrat and Republican voters both support it. Upon reading this, you might be surprised as to why it's NOT federally mandated given how popular it is. One group it's NOT popular w…

One of the things I have found so alarming about a lot of recent revelations is just how cheap congress goes for.

In that case, maybe it would make sense for regular people to create their own PACs. Like a privacy PAC. Pay for lobbyists who are more persuasive than our angry emails.

As they say, freedom ain’t free.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#52

Post by janalsncm » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:29 AM UTC

anonymousiam wrote: post #28

alexpotato wrote: post #18

One of my favorite recently learned facts about Congress: Federally mandated parental leave (paternity and maternity leave) polls at about 80% in favor with the US adult population. This is regardless of political affiliation, by the way. Democrat and Republican voters both support it. Upon reading this, you might be surprised as to why it's NOT federally mandated given how popular it is. One group it's NOT popular w…

Free housing, free food, free health care, and free income are also wildly popular with the US adult population. The problem is that those things are not really "free" because somebody else needs to pay for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority

On the healthcare front it’s not even a question. We are already paying via insurance and deductibles and copays etc. W2s don’t see most of the cost because their company pays it.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#53

Post by vor_ » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:30 AM UTC

anubistheta wrote: post #47

anonymousiam wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free housing, free food, free health care, and free income are also wildly popular with the US adult population. The problem is that those things are not really "free" because somebody else needs to pay for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority

Exactly. Giving people free stuff is extremely popular. If people actually want those things, we can collective open our wallets and pay for it. But that changes people's opinions quite radically.

Does it? I'm skeptical. In fact, we apparently have more than enough money for it because we suddenly have billions to spend on war in the Middle East.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#54

Post by onetimeusename » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:32 AM UTC

There has been debate among statisticians and political scientists about using differential privacy for census data. 2020 was actually the first Decennial Census that used differential privacy. This is the mandated census done every 10 years that counts population and is used for apportionment. Some have criticized the use of differential privacy.[1][2] But others have argued that coarsening does not protect privacy sufficiently and that differential privacy does not distort apportionment.

The political context is unclear. There are lawsuits about whether differential privacy is constitutional. There is also the possibility that citizenship status can be inferred by using multiple census products put together. It's also possible redistricting is at stake although it's unclear to me how getting rid of differential privacy benefits any one party.

[1]: https://apnews.com/article/business-census-2020-technology-e...

[2]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abk3283

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#55

Post by _alternator_ » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:37 AM UTC

onetimeusename wrote: post #54

There has been debate among statisticians and political scientists about using differential privacy for census data. 2020 was actually the first Decennial Census that used differential privacy. This is the mandated census done every 10 years that counts population and is used for apportionment. Some have criticized the use of differential privacy.[1][2] But others have argued that coarsening does not protect privacy…

I'd like to emphasize that coarsening is not just theoretically non-private, a number of attacks that lead to leaking personally identifiable data were demonstrated on the 2010 census. So it's not really a he-said/she-said situation.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#56

Post by thayne » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:43 AM UTC

alexpotato wrote: post #18

One of my favorite recently learned facts about Congress: Federally mandated parental leave (paternity and maternity leave) polls at about 80% in favor with the US adult population. This is regardless of political affiliation, by the way. Democrat and Republican voters both support it. Upon reading this, you might be surprised as to why it's NOT federally mandated given how popular it is. One group it's NOT popular w…

From the responses I've gotten from my representatives when I've written them, my impression is they care a lot more about their corporate sponsors and the party line than they do about their constituents.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#57

Post by 1over137 » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC

8note wrote: post #24

alexpotato wrote: post #18

One of my favorite recently learned facts about Congress: Federally mandated parental leave (paternity and maternity leave) polls at about 80% in favor with the US adult population. This is regardless of political affiliation, by the way. Democrat and Republican voters both support it. Upon reading this, you might be surprised as to why it's NOT federally mandated given how popular it is. One group it's NOT popular w…

if DSA gets enough people in, that might go through? pretty directly within the realms of what their candidates support, and they have a pretty good purity test to tell who to support or not with the genocide question

DSA?

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#58

Post by rexpop » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

anubistheta wrote: post #47

anonymousiam wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free housing, free food, free health care, and free income are also wildly popular with the US adult population. The problem is that those things are not really "free" because somebody else needs to pay for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority

Exactly. Giving people free stuff is extremely popular. If people actually want those things, we can collective open our wallets and pay for it. But that changes people's opinions quite radically.

"It costs money, therefore it's impossible."

You think social democrats never heard of a balanced budget? I don't know how you "fiscal conservatives" take yourselves seriously.

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#59

Post by yieldcrv » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

alexpotato wrote: post #18

One of my favorite recently learned facts about Congress: Federally mandated parental leave (paternity and maternity leave) polls at about 80% in favor with the US adult population. This is regardless of political affiliation, by the way. Democrat and Republican voters both support it. Upon reading this, you might be surprised as to why it's NOT federally mandated given how popular it is. One group it's NOT popular w…

If we had voter referendums at the federal level, most “hot button” partisan issues would be solved because there is consensus across 70-75% of the population, even if weighted by state somehow

Re: An American Privacy Emergency

#60

Post by greyface- » Fri, Jul 03, 2026, 2:53 AM UTC

vor_ wrote: post #49

anonymousiam wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free housing, free food, free health care, and free income are also wildly popular with the US adult population. The problem is that those things are not really "free" because somebody else needs to pay for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority

Yet we apparently have money for military parades and wars and ballrooms. Go figure.

There are infinity dollars in the Federal Reserve. Pay-for requirements are a concern troll bludgeon used against only politically disfavored spending. Taxation (on the federal level) does not pay for services, but merely counteracts the inflationary effect of their provision in an indirect way. It's indirect enough that those who disregard it are not politically punished.