4 ms·

Its only a matter of time before the wrong people get their hands on all the data that big tech has been unscrupulously mining for years now. An authoritarian's

Its only a matter of time before the wrong people get their hands on all the data that big tech has been unscrupulously mining for years now. An authoritarian's wet dream. Im typically a minimal regulation kind of guy but these orgs have consistently demonstrated that without some sort of effective privacy regulation, modern tech companies simply do not have enough incentive to self-regulate with respect to data collection. Laymen are too ignorant to demand better from the modern data cartel.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
Data brokers have been building detailed personal profiles of everyone for fifty years. The Googles are just the new kids at the party. A major reason we don't have strong data privacy law is to protect this business model and maintain the surveillance apparatus it enables.
- badRNG 5y ago
  I think there are generic non-surveillance reasons as well. Whenever an industry gets big enough (tobacco, oil, advertising) it can have enough momentum and capital to have its interests protected by the state to a degree that anything short of an energized mass movement will fail to see these industries regulated (a good example of such a movement having some success is tobacco.)
- mywittyname 5y ago
  Most people don't know the names of the worst offenders.
throwawaymanbot 5y ago
already happened/Happens.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
MichaelMoser123 5y ago
That's what you have in Russia, operators are obliged to collect and store vast amounts of data under the SORM laws, and then bellingcat were able to access all this data in their investigations, that's how they got the location trail of the agents that shaddowed and poisened Navalny (and others). Bellingcat got all that data from a black market on data, where low profile employees are selling access to all this gathered data for a couple of dimes, see [3]. I wonder if a similar black data market is already in place in other countries... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SORM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SORM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat#Poisoning_of_Alexei_Navalny_and_others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat#Poisoning_of_Alexei... [3] https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2020/12/14/navalny-fsb-methodology/ https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2020/12/14/navalny-fsb-...
Forbo 5y ago
> Its only a matter of time before the wrong people get their hands on all the data that big tech has been unscrupulously mining for years now. An authoritarian's wet dream. This is typically my go to for any discussion regarding privacy apathy. Citing things like the NSA's "Total Information Awareness" and "Nobody But Us" attitudes also does well to tie into this.
ianmiers 5y ago
This has already happened. A catholic newspaper bought commercial location and app data and used it to out a gay priest who was forced to resign. They broke the joke "privacy protections" by knowing his home, office, and a conference he went to. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-quits-after-anonymized-data-revealed-alleged-use-of-grindr/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-...
anigbrowl 5y ago
some sort of effective privacy regulation Anyone who tries to do effective privacy regulation at the political level will be condemned as enabling crime, by the very same people that say they're very angry about their liberties being eroded and willing to shoot people over it.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

Data brokers have been building detailed personal profiles of everyone for fifty years. The Googles are just the new kids at the party. A major reason we don't have strong data privacy law is to protect this business model and maintain the surveillance apparatus it enables.

badRNG 5y ago
I think there are generic non-surveillance reasons as well. Whenever an industry gets big enough (tobacco, oil, advertising) it can have enough momentum and capital to have its interests protected by the state to a degree that anything short of an energized mass movement will fail to see these industries regulated (a good example of such a movement having some success is tobacco.)
mywittyname 5y ago
Most people don't know the names of the worst offenders.

throwawaymanbot 5y ago

already happened/Happens.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

MichaelMoser123 5y ago

That's what you have in Russia, operators are obliged to collect and store vast amounts of data under the SORM laws, and then bellingcat were able to access all this data in their investigations, that's how they got the location trail of the agents that shaddowed and poisened Navalny (and others). Bellingcat got all that data from a black market on data, where low profile employees are selling access to all this gathered data for a couple of dimes, see [3]. I wonder if a similar black data market is already in place in other countries... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SORM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SORM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat#Poisoning_of_Alexei_Navalny_and_others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat#Poisoning_of_Alexei... [3] https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2020/12/14/navalny-fsb-methodology/ https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2020/12/14/navalny-fsb-...

Forbo 5y ago

> Its only a matter of time before the wrong people get their hands on all the data that big tech has been unscrupulously mining for years now. An authoritarian's wet dream. This is typically my go to for any discussion regarding privacy apathy. Citing things like the NSA's "Total Information Awareness" and "Nobody But Us" attitudes also does well to tie into this.

ianmiers 5y ago

This has already happened. A catholic newspaper bought commercial location and app data and used it to out a gay priest who was forced to resign. They broke the joke "privacy protections" by knowing his home, office, and a conference he went to. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-quits-after-anonymized-data-revealed-alleged-use-of-grindr/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/catholic-priest-...

anigbrowl 5y ago

some sort of effective privacy regulation Anyone who tries to do effective privacy regulation at the political level will be condemned as enabling crime, by the very same people that say they're very angry about their liberties being eroded and willing to shoot people over it.