garote | (Reply)

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Yeah I can tell you're "not concerned" about it. I find that hilarious.

I was wondering at what point in this discussion the tech industry's apparently rampant anti-government sentiment (blinding it to private abuse) would appear.

Point noted.

Since the data is anonymized, what is your beef with this?

It doesn't necessarily stay anonymized, as a researcher demonstrated.

One problem is that people don’t understand what makes data unique or identifiable. For example, in 1997 I was able to show how medical information that had all explicit identifiers, such as name, address and Social Security number removed could be re-identified using publicly available population registers (e.g., a voter list).… The point is that data that may look anonymous is not necessarily anonymous.

Take three identifiers (often available in the public realm) and anyone is your bitch. Lose your database to a hack——as far too many already have——and everyone can be brought to heel.

Oh, and the private companies are providing this information to the government (for a fee, of course), so right there your worst nightmares join mine. Ta-daaa!

Also, on biggest by profits versus expenses: Citation needed.

I'll look. Been doing a lot of reading lately. It starts to blur together.