Ik wil iedereen met deze geruststellende gedachte uit Amerika het weekend ingaan; een artikel in TechCrunch met de weinig aan de verbeelding overlatende titel:

Ted Cruz blocks bill that would extend privacy protections to all Americans. Voor wie Ted Cruz nog niet kent, de man is een republikeinse senator voor de staat Texas die ooit presidentiële ambities had (en misschien nog altijd heeft). En Cruz lijkt een vriend van Big Data, getuige onderstaande, uitgebreide snippet van het artikel uit TechCrunch:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blocked an effort to pass legislation that would have extended data privacy protections for federal lawmakers and public officials to everyone in the United States.

On Monday night, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked the U.S. Senate for unanimous consent from fellow senators to pass his legislation, S.2850, or Protecting Americans from Doxing and Political Violence Act. Wyden’s bill, if passed, would have taken bipartisan-passed provisions designed to protect government officials, lawmakers, and their families from having their personal information sold or traded by data brokers, and extend them to every American and person living in the United States.

“Members of Congress should not receive special treatment,” Wyden said on the Senate floor. “Our constituents deserve protection from violence, stalking, and other criminal threats.”

“Protecting everyone is the most effective way to protect U.S. military and intelligence personnel, including undercover officers,” Wyden added, per the congressional record.

Cruz was the sole objecting senator, who claimed without evidence that Wyden’s bill could disrupt law enforcement, “such as knowing where sexual predators are living.”

Data brokers are part of a worldwide multibillion-dollar industry of companies that profit from hoarding and selling access to huge amounts of Americans’ personal, financial, and granular location information, often collected from phones and other devices connected to the internet. This data gets sold, including to governments, which don’t need a warrant for commercially obtainable data.

The collection of huge banks of data also comes with its own risks, including security lapses and data breaches. Information bought by data brokers has been used to dox people, and in recent cases is linked to the shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers, one of whom died. The killer allegedly obtained their home addresses from data brokers.

Ik wist overigens niet dat Amerikaanse “volksvertegenwoordigers” een ander privacy regime kennen dan de mensen die zij claimen te vertegenwoordigen.

Waarom dit relevant is? Omdat Trump’s AMERICA’S AI ACTION PLAN uit deze mentaliteit voorkomt, met nog wat toegevoegde dictatoriale kruiden. De rechten en bescherming van de burger is slechts een afterthought. Evenals de internationale verhoudingen overigens

What could possibly go wrong?