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>But as multiple private investigators explained to Motherboard, the reasons investigators can give to DMVs in order to access data can be overbroad and open to

>But as multiple private investigators explained to Motherboard, the reasons investigators can give to DMVs in order to access data can be overbroad and open to abuse. So, what do we do then? Create laws to fix the possible abuse or create laws to prohibit the selling of this information in the first place? Why was this allowed originally? >"This is a revenue generating contract" It is disgusting to me that they would be willing to forfeit privacy for money, but in today's game, I fully expect it at this point. Edit: clarity.

save_ferris 6y ago
This is a byproduct of trying to run governments more like businesses. A government's primary responsibility shouldn't be to make money, but the idea of lower taxes is attractive to so many in our current political environment, even if it means sacrificing basic rights to privacy like this. If we think about citizens as shareholders of a government, we as citizens don't possess the same feedback loop that corporations do via the markets. Every stock purchase is a vote of confidence in a company to a degree, insofar as one buys a stock with the hope that it will increase in value. Unfortunately, the public doesn't have a fast feedback loop like this, and a lot of these decisions are made under the assumption that public either won't ever find out about it, or they'll be distracted by other issues.
- orev 6y ago
  The feedback loop for government is supposed to be voting, but that’s really slow and the politicians have gotten so good at distracting people during campaigns, nobody seems to be paying attention to the things they are actually doing when in office.
- mas3god 6y ago
  Governments only need a check of approval from the masses, businesses need people willing to pay for their product... Two incredibly different things
- stanfordkid 6y ago
  The problem is that the metrics are wrong... government organizations should be run like businesses, but the ways in which people are measured and rewarded should not be profitability, but impact. Businesses that are run to maximize revenue seldom do it... instead they make bad short term decisions. Businesses that use metrics like engagement and satisfaction as maximization criterion, inevitably maximize revenue as a side-effect. The same should be applied to government -- even more so.
  - specialist 6y ago
    Preach. Peter Drucker, in the 90s, encouraged businesses to emulate non-profit organizations. He was popularizing case studies which showed some of the most effective, efficient orgs in the world were non-profits. From wiki: "The importance of the nonprofit sector,[35] which he calls the third sector (private sector and the Government sector being the first two). Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles in the economies of countries around the world." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker#Key_ideas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker#Key_ideas -- I like your use of "metrics". I usually frame market design in terms of "incentives", but I might adopt your frame. Price discovery and surplus (profit) are not the only possible metrics. Markets can, and have been, designed to optimize pretty much every other conceivable goal as well. But the thrall of corporatism (aka Freedom Markets™) keeps those alternatives out of public discourse. Anything not optimized for surplus (profit) is dismissed with pejoratives like socialism.
  - msla 6y ago
    > government organizations should be run like businesses, but the ways in which people are measured and rewarded should not be profitability, but impact. "Impact" can't be tied too strongly to number of people affected because one of the things governments do is take on jobs which must be done but which are unprofitable because too few people need them done to make it into a market. This should be obvious, but it's also obvious that "number of people" is a really easy thing to measure, so, like the drunk looking for her car keys under the streetlight because the light is better, all organizations tend to build metrics on top of the data that's easiest to get at.
  - save_ferris 6y ago

save_ferris 6y ago

This is a byproduct of trying to run governments more like businesses. A government's primary responsibility shouldn't be to make money, but the idea of lower taxes is attractive to so many in our current political environment, even if it means sacrificing basic rights to privacy like this. If we think about citizens as shareholders of a government, we as citizens don't possess the same feedback loop that corporations do via the markets. Every stock purchase is a vote of confidence in a company to a degree, insofar as one buys a stock with the hope that it will increase in value. Unfortunately, the public doesn't have a fast feedback loop like this, and a lot of these decisions are made under the assumption that public either won't ever find out about it, or they'll be distracted by other issues.

orev 6y ago
The feedback loop for government is supposed to be voting, but that’s really slow and the politicians have gotten so good at distracting people during campaigns, nobody seems to be paying attention to the things they are actually doing when in office.
mas3god 6y ago
Governments only need a check of approval from the masses, businesses need people willing to pay for their product... Two incredibly different things
stanfordkid 6y ago
The problem is that the metrics are wrong... government organizations should be run like businesses, but the ways in which people are measured and rewarded should not be profitability, but impact. Businesses that are run to maximize revenue seldom do it... instead they make bad short term decisions. Businesses that use metrics like engagement and satisfaction as maximization criterion, inevitably maximize revenue as a side-effect. The same should be applied to government -- even more so.
- specialist 6y ago
  Preach. Peter Drucker, in the 90s, encouraged businesses to emulate non-profit organizations. He was popularizing case studies which showed some of the most effective, efficient orgs in the world were non-profits. From wiki: "The importance of the nonprofit sector,[35] which he calls the third sector (private sector and the Government sector being the first two). Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles in the economies of countries around the world." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker#Key_ideas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker#Key_ideas -- I like your use of "metrics". I usually frame market design in terms of "incentives", but I might adopt your frame. Price discovery and surplus (profit) are not the only possible metrics. Markets can, and have been, designed to optimize pretty much every other conceivable goal as well. But the thrall of corporatism (aka Freedom Markets™) keeps those alternatives out of public discourse. Anything not optimized for surplus (profit) is dismissed with pejoratives like socialism.
- msla 6y ago
  > government organizations should be run like businesses, but the ways in which people are measured and rewarded should not be profitability, but impact. "Impact" can't be tied too strongly to number of people affected because one of the things governments do is take on jobs which must be done but which are unprofitable because too few people need them done to make it into a market. This should be obvious, but it's also obvious that "number of people" is a really easy thing to measure, so, like the drunk looking for her car keys under the streetlight because the light is better, all organizations tend to build metrics on top of the data that's easiest to get at.
- save_ferris 6y ago