5 ms·

What about raising money to buy a bunch of data from, say, the Washington, D.C. area and then de-anonymizing it. I wonder what we'd learn...

bradlys 5y ago
I really doubt legislation would come into effect. Instead, the people organizing the effort will be hunted down, prosecuted, and turned into examples of what happens when you try to fuck with people in high level government positions.
- NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
  That's a coordinated response. We don't want to invoke a coordinated response. Pick some prominent people to make examples of--people who will make many others happy by their embarassment.
  - hilbert42 5y ago
    The whole matter would likely come to a head very quickly if said data were sent to politicians. Seeing their own data exposed would not only be embarrassing but a wakeup call to everyone. Not only would the laws quickly change but also we'd soon learn about some of the nefarious antics and unsavory deals made by our governors.
    - NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
      That's the hope
TeMPOraL 5y ago
I wonder how a different tactic would fare: 1. Buy some legit(ish) dataset for marketing purposes. I hear DMVs in the US like to sell people's data. 2. Do a direct marketing job: send every single person in the dataset a snail mail letter with a printout of all the data you have on them, and a reference to where you got it from. I hear USPS offers good rates for bulk spam campaigns; they apparently live off it. That sounds like something that is in range of crowdfunding money, could possibly be fully legal, and sidesteps the issue of news outlets killing the message, with (as I recently heard) their policy of not reporting data from leaked datasets.
- evilos 5y ago
  This would cause so much chaos and probably result in thousands of divorces. Maybe we could get a lawyers group to front the money lol.
- VRay 5y ago
  Man, that would be great. I'll bet it'd be doable for anyone whose name is tied to public records via home ownership too Scale up what they did to Trump for this NY Times piece: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/opinion/location-data-national-security.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/opinion/locat... See if people keep clicking "Allow" on their phone games after that goes out.. Of course, what'd actually happen is everyone would just attack the messenger. Maybe there'd be some super half-assed knee-jerk law thrown into place If I ever get terminal cancer I'll see if I can throw something together before I kick the bucket, haha.
  - NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
    I think carefully designing the campaign from the start to avoid a PR backlash would be really important. Doable, too.
- sroussey 5y ago
  I actually looked into it. They are smart on this and won’t sell to you.
  - NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
    Thanks for looking in to this! I wonder if we could put together a swarm of small transactions that would allow us to reconstruct a bigger data set of interest.
  - gorwell 5y ago
    How do they determine who to sell to?
    - 5y ago
dillondoyle 5y ago
Has happened with grindr a few times that I know of. https://accesswdun.com/article/2021/7/1024075 https://accesswdun.com/article/2021/7/1024075 And the Strava on military bases thing. https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/ https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-f...

bradlys 5y ago

I really doubt legislation would come into effect. Instead, the people organizing the effort will be hunted down, prosecuted, and turned into examples of what happens when you try to fuck with people in high level government positions.

NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
That's a coordinated response. We don't want to invoke a coordinated response. Pick some prominent people to make examples of--people who will make many others happy by their embarassment.
- hilbert42 5y ago
  The whole matter would likely come to a head very quickly if said data were sent to politicians. Seeing their own data exposed would not only be embarrassing but a wakeup call to everyone. Not only would the laws quickly change but also we'd soon learn about some of the nefarious antics and unsavory deals made by our governors.
  - NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
    That's the hope

TeMPOraL 5y ago

I wonder how a different tactic would fare: 1. Buy some legit(ish) dataset for marketing purposes. I hear DMVs in the US like to sell people's data. 2. Do a direct marketing job: send every single person in the dataset a snail mail letter with a printout of all the data you have on them, and a reference to where you got it from. I hear USPS offers good rates for bulk spam campaigns; they apparently live off it. That sounds like something that is in range of crowdfunding money, could possibly be fully legal, and sidesteps the issue of news outlets killing the message, with (as I recently heard) their policy of not reporting data from leaked datasets.

evilos 5y ago
This would cause so much chaos and probably result in thousands of divorces. Maybe we could get a lawyers group to front the money lol.
VRay 5y ago
Man, that would be great. I'll bet it'd be doable for anyone whose name is tied to public records via home ownership too Scale up what they did to Trump for this NY Times piece: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/opinion/location-data-national-security.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/opinion/locat... See if people keep clicking "Allow" on their phone games after that goes out.. Of course, what'd actually happen is everyone would just attack the messenger. Maybe there'd be some super half-assed knee-jerk law thrown into place If I ever get terminal cancer I'll see if I can throw something together before I kick the bucket, haha.
- NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
  I think carefully designing the campaign from the start to avoid a PR backlash would be really important. Doable, too.
sroussey 5y ago
I actually looked into it. They are smart on this and won’t sell to you.
- NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
  Thanks for looking in to this! I wonder if we could put together a swarm of small transactions that would allow us to reconstruct a bigger data set of interest.
- gorwell 5y ago
  How do they determine who to sell to?
  - 5y ago

dillondoyle 5y ago

Has happened with grindr a few times that I know of. https://accesswdun.com/article/2021/7/1024075 https://accesswdun.com/article/2021/7/1024075 And the Strava on military bases thing. https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/ https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-f...