Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/19/ignoring-warrants-the-secret.html
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It’s bad news; but hopefully this sort of thing will remind the more libertarian-minded that all it takes is one PO to turn surveillance capitalism into straight surveillance. And the feds are clearly not ignorant of that fact.
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The problem is with the collection of the data at all. Personal data should come with very high liability for its possession and protection.
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Ah, come on. Do you have something to hide?
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Nope, but you still have to get a warrant if you want to conduct a search of my data.
Oh, wait, you’re just Mega-Spy-Corp looking to skew an election? Come on in, look around, why not go
through my kids diaries while you’re at it? /s 
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They need a search warrant to compel you or others to give them information. The thing is, they don’t really need it to simply purchase information. Even if providing that information to the government violates the terms of service that you and the service provider agreed to, it isn’t the government that has violated that contract, it is the service provider. So you could sue the company, but at that point the government sill has your information. So always remember, whatever information you are giving to another you are potentially giving to anybody that might be interested in itl.
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The thing is, they don’t really need it to simply purchase information.
Which used to be prohibitively expensive, until ubiquitous surveillance became cheap… which is why we need to make it (a) illegal to holding electronically stored private information not related to a direct, paid, business activity with the private individual and (b) attach onerous liability to it, making a data breach where there is even a whiff of negligence something that threatens any individual business.
We, de facto, cannot operate in modern society without spewing information left, right and centre. Like so many other business models with dubious societal value, this one needs to be shut down, in my considered opinion.
We have not really come to terms with the fact that the explosion in processing power means that there is no longer any anonymity in crowds, either virtual or real. Sift through a million credit card transactions for somebody that bought red paint, green paint and posterboard? No problem. Look through surveillance footage to see where in NYC one particular car drove? No problem. Before computers, the FBI would not do a fingerprint search without an entire set of 10 fingerprints to narrow down the search through Henry classification.
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I understand you’re joking, however my standard response in my case would be: “Yes, I have everything to hide, because my personal life belongs only to me and is nobody else’s business. If that means to you I’m a terrorist, a rapist, a drug dealer, a pedophile, or any other criminal, it’s up to you to use tax payers money to attempt to demonstrate that, and fail, because having nothing wrong to hide is not a good reason for surrendering one’s entire personal life details.”
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BTW: We have that protection in the EU, it’s called GDPR. privacy shield and safe harbour agreements were ruled not compliant to GDPR by EU courts, because the US government agencies do not comply GDPR rules when they come into possession of personal data of EU citizens.
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We have that protection in the EU, it’s called GDPR. privacy shield and safe harbour agreements
Yeah, I deal with that with my EU clients. It’s relatively weak and the fines are too low, IMHO. Why Cambridge Analytica hasn’t faced, for example, far more severe public sanction is beyond me.
We have a decent gut reaction to these sorts of abuses when they come in the form of a secret police. We haven’t developed the same gut reaction, collectively, when they come in the form of a $2 coupon at your favourite burger joint. That, even though very broadly, and entirely without malign intent in most of the actors in the situation, the effects are revealing themselves to be just as serious, perhaps worse.
Simple: Because all that was before GDPR.
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