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Data Miners Moving to Offshore Data Havens
schwit1 writes "Washington Post has an article about former TIA personnel moving their data mining operations offshore (Bahamas) to escape
U.S. privacy rules, and to make a buck. I'm waiting for somebody to publish the private data (financial, medical, legal) of federal officials and their families on an open internet web server out of the Bahamas. Is this what it will take for the US to enact stringent privacy rules?"
okay the poster here is saying that if a foreign country hosts information that violates US laws, we are going to enact more laws???
I think if they did something like that, we'd be more likely to invade, though I'd prefer the stronger laws...
Reminds me of a publicity stunt a newspaper in portland pulled after the local government ruled that trash on the curbside was fair game for the police to seize without a warrant. They went dumpster diving at several high profile government officials curbsides and posted the results of their findings in the paper. I thought it was a very effective piece of journalism.
The US could do the same as the EU, and prohibit export of personal data to jurisdictions which do not have equal or better privacy protections as ours. That would stop a lot of outsourcing in general, and probably be a vote-winner among unemployed geeks.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
"why not privatize all of government?"
Have you heard of something called "the presidents management agenda" that the Bush administration has been touting since it came into office. This president has been seeking to outsource all "non inherently governmental" jobs in the US executive branch for quite some time now. The thinking for this is that private corporations will save the taxpayers money by finding efficiencies in doing business that government cannot. But yes, beware of where your personal information may end up!
I agree with your premise, I just don't think it would work. everyone needs to keep some private information about a person, its combining it that makes it dangerous and annoying. Credit agencies for example have SO MUCH information about you, and the amount of info on Lexus-Nexus is amazing, I found out there are professionals out there who work for rich people and try to keep their assets out of these databases... I wonder what would happen if lexus-nexus was taken down
I don't see how posting so called private medical data really matters. For example, how can it matter if you know that I am a diabetic? For insurance purposes? I imagine that I have to declare this anyhow.. What else? Legal? This is already public knowledge? Financial? Largely public as well. I really don't see the reason for all the uproar.. of course.. my mind is open as to why I should care...
Privatization isn't inherently bad. The reasoning behind it is many companies will have to compete for government contracts. This goes along with capitalism that the best business will come out on top. I worked for the US government in an internship over the summer. I've worked for small businesses. Believe me, there is a difference! If you can't get fired for being lazy, why work?
However, like anything, privatization can be corrupted by people unwilling to play by the rules. That is bad and that should be fixed. However, saying that all privatization is evil Bush facsism, etc, means you are blaming all companies for the problems of one company and one administration.
Yeah, Halliburton getting billions for the Iraq reconstruction is bullshit. But I think the government taking over healthcare costing the taxpayers "more" billions would be just as bad. You have to take each example and judge it on it's own merits. Big government is bad and small government supporting big evil business is just as bad.
The really idiotic part was that the class action lawsuite was dismissed because "the class had suffered no damages." One law firm's reaction was the potential value of this ruling as a defense for future privacy theft instances.
The original story is at http://www.willametteweek.com/story.php?story=3485 (the previous poster linked to a followup story).
You are not paying enough attention to the current laws. As far as I understand it, law currently on the books would make the following illegal in the US.
A band from Trinidad is playing a concert in The Bahamas. A person from Spain records the concert without the knowledge or approval of the band. This is a crime in the US.
Well, actually, trafficing in this recording is illegal. Now, get this, it is a crime even if the recording was made before the law was passed.
Also, it will still be a crime a hundred years from now to traffic in this recording, or even a thousand years from now. IIRC, becuase there is no cutoff date, a judge has just declared this unconstitutional.
Sure to be ammended with a nice long cutoff date to clean up that little problem however.
I wonder what is to happen to all of those National Geographic recordings of musical performances of tribal music made in years gone by. You think they have signed written permission from the performers in all cases? My guess is that those works are now illegal.
A Nony Mouse
--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu
And well, you Canadians also have that nice VAT added onto everything you buy....that also goes to help pay for all those costs. Also, if you're not sick on the verge of death, you get to wait in line forever...but yes, it's free.
Just my 2 cents.