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I don't think anyone assumes the booking for their next family vacation or business trip can't be tracked. They use their credit card and their telephone number

by shmatt 5y ago

I don't think anyone assumes the booking for their next family vacation or business trip can't be tracked. They use their credit card and their telephone number at least As for losing the customer base of drug kingpins and wanted terrorists, they're probably OK with losing them

hammock 5y ago
That might be a reasonable expectation, that the government of the country whose company you use to book a hotel would know what you're doing. But that's not this. Booking.com is a Dutch company. The spy was American. And not even authorized by the US nor the Netherlands either.
- capableweb 5y ago
  Booking.com is kind of a Dutch company, at least the .com division, but it's actually owned by a American parent, "Booking Holdings", based in Norwalk, Connecticut.
  - astrange 5y ago
    They sold themselves to Priceline because Europe doesn't seem capable of funding startups.
    - capableweb 5y ago
      True, too bad Klarna, Spotify, Snyk, Glovo, N26, eToro and more simply doesn't exist because they couldn't find funding :(
oxfordmale 5y ago
You are assuming that the only black hat hackers are "trustworthy" Americans. There are a list of countries where selling on any of the collected data on the black market would either be condoned or actively pursued to maximise disruption. Would you be happy for a database of holidays to be sold to a crime ring to select their next best target for a burglary ? Or more realistically, would you be happy for such state actors to identify PEPs (politically exposed person) who are potentially cheating on their partners and use this as leverage to drive through certain political decisions? There is no such thing as a vulnerability that can only be abused by the good "guys"
- pbaka 5y ago
  > abused by the good "guys" quotation marks are on the wrong word.
Griffinsauce 5y ago
> As for losing the customer base of drug kingpins and wanted terrorists, they're probably OK with losing them This is just the "nothing to hide" argument in reverse.

by shmatt 5y ago

hammock 5y ago

That might be a reasonable expectation, that the government of the country whose company you use to book a hotel would know what you're doing. But that's not this. Booking.com is a Dutch company. The spy was American. And not even authorized by the US nor the Netherlands either.

capableweb 5y ago
Booking.com is kind of a Dutch company, at least the .com division, but it's actually owned by a American parent, "Booking Holdings", based in Norwalk, Connecticut.
- astrange 5y ago
  They sold themselves to Priceline because Europe doesn't seem capable of funding startups.
  - capableweb 5y ago
    True, too bad Klarna, Spotify, Snyk, Glovo, N26, eToro and more simply doesn't exist because they couldn't find funding :(

oxfordmale 5y ago

You are assuming that the only black hat hackers are "trustworthy" Americans. There are a list of countries where selling on any of the collected data on the black market would either be condoned or actively pursued to maximise disruption. Would you be happy for a database of holidays to be sold to a crime ring to select their next best target for a burglary ? Or more realistically, would you be happy for such state actors to identify PEPs (politically exposed person) who are potentially cheating on their partners and use this as leverage to drive through certain political decisions? There is no such thing as a vulnerability that can only be abused by the good "guys"

pbaka 5y ago
> abused by the good "guys" quotation marks are on the wrong word.

Griffinsauce 5y ago

> As for losing the customer base of drug kingpins and wanted terrorists, they're probably OK with losing them This is just the "nothing to hide" argument in reverse.