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Mug-Shot Industry Digs Up Your Past, Charges You To Bury It
An anonymous reader writes "Exploiting Florida's liberal public-records laws and Google's search algorithms, a handful of entrepreneurs are making real money by publicly shaming people who've run afoul of Florida law. Florida.arrests.org, the biggest player, now hosts more than 4 million mugs. On the other side of the equation are firms like RemoveSlander, RemoveArrest.com and others that sometimes charge hundreds of dollars to get a mugshot removed. On the surface, the mug-shot sites and the reputation firms are mortal enemies. But behind the scenes, they have a symbiotic relationship that wrings cash out of the people exposed."
Assuming that the mug-shot disappears from florida.arrests.org, does it disappear from the public records?
If not, what stops another site to do the same?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Desperate to get off the site, Cabibi quickly found an apparent ally: RemoveSlander.com. “You are not a criminal,” the website said reassuringly. “End this humiliating ordeal Bail out of Google. We can delete the mug-shot photo.”
Well, the best reaction would have been: contact the other mug-shots and start a " Block florida.arrests.org" campaign on Google. If there are enough of them, the florida.arrests.org will sunk into the oblivion.
Hey, should the /.-ers help? Like: log into your gmail account, do a search after "Florida mugshots" and use the "Block ... " feature?
Aww... c'mon guys, let's see how fast we can pull the carpet under the feet of the computer-savvy Florida ex-con named Rob Wiggen. I just did it, also blocking from my results the www.mugshots.com, mugshotsusa.com and a bunch of others (we should stop only when the real public records will get onto the first page).
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Is it just me or does that sound like classic blackmail? How can stuff like this be legal?
While at the same time stiffing investigative journalism forever. Perhaps not with mugshots, but it's a slippery slope to eliminating FOIA and the related state open records acts.
Most scandinavian countries have strict rules about privacy of individuals, although criminal records are freely searchable by those with a need to know. Really any need to know is fine, but if it is determined later that you lied, you are in big trouble.
Seems alright. "Applying for a job" is sufficient need to know. So is a press pass. You get access.
"Scraping 10 million records" is not. You get a fine and are liable in civil court for breach of privacy.
Seems very simple.
Privacy and freedom of information are two sides of the same coin. The idea is that the people need to be defended from oppressive states and that the people need to have power over oppressive states. State information should be freely available. People's information should only be available when it can be clearly proven that it is the states information.
What is wrong here is that the data of innocent people should be theirs to control. The state and the sites republishing should be 100% liable for any even potential reputation damage of leaking the data of such people.
The second thing which is wrong is the vindictiveness of US justice. There needs to be a clear period after which minor crimes are forgiven and there is no effective difference between that person and an innocent person. Unfortunately the US uses bad tools like plea bargains which mean it is impossible to differentiate the evil guilty who got away with a good deal from the people who thought they would be declared innocent and chose to fight.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Hmmm..
What of this?
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Daniel_Ulmaniec_5474799/?d=1
By the charges, I'd guess he broke a window and stole an xBox.
Pretty harsh to have the lifetime scarlet letter in the name of community data rights.
my favourite part is how they are intentionally trying to piss-off/harass criminals
Not really: Hardened criminals are unlikely to care if there is a mug shot of them on some site. The people that are going to suffer for this are the people who:
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head