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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24104862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24104862 This guy ran France's database for that when the Nazis invaded. Th

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24104862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24104862 This guy ran France's database for that when the Nazis invaded. They wanted a list of the Jews out of the database. The problem with tracking all of us is trusting the next administration Then again I prefer a more robust solution than hoping someone refuses to run a SELECT query.

Spivak 6y ago
I think your point stands as for why we don’t want such a database but between Social Security which is now tied to the new federal driver’s licenses, taxes, and the census I think it’s a tough sell that the government couldn’t assemble the same data.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Agreed, but surely the More Evil Government could just buy a marketing database - or have NSA download it - and know everything down to what size underpants people wear and which specific businesses and organisations they support. Facebook - without checking the specific details - can probably tell the locality and religious position of most of their users; certainly enough to direct the Neue Gestapo to arrest you. But they also have raw address and religion details, which makes it somewhat easier.
Denvercoder9 6y ago
Such a database doesn't need to include religion or ethnicity. You can come a long way with just name and address.
pedrocr 6y ago
And the very place where that happened now has a database again but without any of that information in it. The lesson that no database at all can exist seems like the wrong one. Pretty much every EU country has a database of citizens that is also then used to define who can vote where. It works fine. Those same places also do a census as a completely different effort for different reasons.
- agensaequivocum 6y ago
  We are not Europe and modern society has existed for but a brief moment in the long history of the world. I have no desire to give the government any more of an advantage over me. There's no reason to think that it will never be used in the future.
  - razakel 6y ago
    Name, sex, parents, place and date of birth. That's all the government needs to know about you to prove you're a citizen. Anything beyond that is just market research.

Spivak 6y ago

I think your point stands as for why we don’t want such a database but between Social Security which is now tied to the new federal driver’s licenses, taxes, and the census I think it’s a tough sell that the government couldn’t assemble the same data.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Agreed, but surely the More Evil Government could just buy a marketing database - or have NSA download it - and know everything down to what size underpants people wear and which specific businesses and organisations they support. Facebook - without checking the specific details - can probably tell the locality and religious position of most of their users; certainly enough to direct the Neue Gestapo to arrest you. But they also have raw address and religion details, which makes it somewhat easier.

Denvercoder9 6y ago

Such a database doesn't need to include religion or ethnicity. You can come a long way with just name and address.

pedrocr 6y ago

And the very place where that happened now has a database again but without any of that information in it. The lesson that no database at all can exist seems like the wrong one. Pretty much every EU country has a database of citizens that is also then used to define who can vote where. It works fine. Those same places also do a census as a completely different effort for different reasons.

agensaequivocum 6y ago
We are not Europe and modern society has existed for but a brief moment in the long history of the world. I have no desire to give the government any more of an advantage over me. There's no reason to think that it will never be used in the future.
- razakel 6y ago
  Name, sex, parents, place and date of birth. That's all the government needs to know about you to prove you're a citizen. Anything beyond that is just market research.