5 ms·

If you're in Walnut Creek for 2 hours, the city is tracking you

• mikestew 1y ago
  Boy, did the headline writer get that one wrong. It isn’t the city tracking you, it’s “local business leaders”. I’m still undecided on which is more sinister, but let’s get the details right.
  • tough 1y ago
    Isn't that the defacto owners of the city usually? Even if you can vote a politician usually both parties are financed by the same local businesses?
    • WCSTombs 1y ago
      Business owners are not called "The City."
      • tough 1y ago
        Right that does make sense, but "the city" is a generic enough entity which shouldn't translate to its politicians/govt necessarily automatically either?
        • __s 1y ago
          There are many contexts where that translates automatically The city sends me a letter telling me to mow my lawn when I let it grow wild all Summer
        • mystified5016 1y ago
          "The city" as an entity refers to local governance and city legislation
          • db48x 1y ago
            When you tell the story about how you went to New York City for vacation nobody pictures you hanging out with the Mayor or meeting the City Council or whatever.
      • pixl97 1y ago
        In the US most corporations/businesses are allowed to sell the government data that the government itself is not allowed to collect. When it comes to any data anywhere the problem isn't generally the government having it then, it's that the government can request it one way or another at almost any time.
    • JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      > usually both parties are financed by the same local businesses? Most municipal elections aren’t two part. In large single-party cities, the action happens at the primary. In small towns they’re usually nonpartisan. In neither case do local business leaders usually have command.
• mitchbob 1y ago
  https://archive.ph/vQd9j https://archive.ph/vQd9j
• 486sx33 1y ago
  [dead]
• corranh 1y ago
  A better headline would be “Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce purchases location tracking data of visitors”. What this article misses is that any cities’ business community could buy the same data if they wanted.
• kazinator 1y ago
  Speaking of Walnut Creek in the context of funny tracking ... https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gawk.git/commit/?id=cce5115e21db1702e0617afdca36633e7e2c9eae https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gawk.git/commit/?id=c...
  • kilpikaarna 1y ago
    Crazy how even after 25 years or whatever "Walnut Creek" instantly made me think of platypuses and Slackware CDs!