https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/golden-state-killer-suspect-s-capture-sparks-dna-site-privacy-n869661
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenmatloff/2018/04/28/why-the-golden-state-case-kept-this-genetic-counselor-up-all-night/#6c6363a04682
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/austin-bomber-narrative-trnd/index.html
You’ve read all about these events – how the Texas bomber was caught as well as a horrible case closed after 40 years. It’s hard to decry the invasion of privacy when these high profile cases are such obviously good things that result, but there are some elements I believe we all need to keep in mind:
- These are privacy violations, call a spade a spade. A warrant was executed to uncover the Texas Bomber’s Google searches and the DNA data used to close the Golden State Killer case was obviously a huge breech of service provider trust and expectation of privacy.
- We as citizens are only now in a position to weigh the cost/benefit of these privacy violations. I think very few could argue that these two examples are effectively great big green lights for privacy violation if these are the results. That said, I also think this train of thought is intentional.
- Consider the timing – who put this burden on the citizens now instead of asking us years ago, and why with only this information? We were put in this position after the fact, we as citizens weren’t asked to vote on anything 5-10 years ago as to whether this was acceptable. In the face of only the positive information spoon fed to us the answer as to whether “it’s worth it” seems easy, but that paints an incomplete picture.
- How long have citizens DNA been used and for what cases was it fruitful? Has law enforcement been comparing all DNA cases to “third party DNA databases”, and what about the accuracy of those databases, is there bias? What Google searches have been authorized that yielded nothing helpful, only personal information nobody else should have the right to see? We have no idea, and nobody can make a decision in a vacuum.
- This information vacuum is intentional to guide our cost/benefit decision. We need to actively uncover the rest or we’ll continue to be kept in the dark while being spoon fed just enough information to make the “decisions” those in power want us to make.
- These third parties are another facet of government privatized, and as a result they are not held accountable to the people. This is by their design.
Are we cattle to be guided like that? The current answer is “yes” – what are we going to do about it?
- If the Texas Bomber had used a VPN and never logged into Google (and preferably didn’t use them at all), his home IP address wouldn’t have yielded search history results.
- We now know that “third party” means our government, ie, any time any service provider says they may provide our data to a third party for analysis that third party can be law enforcement or some other federal database being used for purposes unknown. These private businesses are not accountable to We, The People.
- Citizens cannot make informed voting decisions when information is withheld. Consider this the next time you read a “cloud” provider service agreement.
- Privacy does NOT need to be traded for security, that’s a fallacy. Criminals have been caught without their library checkout list being public for a hundred years (remember when that used to be private? Like opening personal letter sent via US Mail, but those liberties are gone now). The only reason the Texas Bomber wasn’t caught earlier is that he was a cop and they didn’t bother to look within their own ranks at the time.