I'm curious what the overall take will be on this. Normally, this action would be frowned upon if it was a private company, but I'm assuming that people may be more open to it being done by Treasury because it's "for the societal good".
I wish there was the ability to make a poll:
* This is fine, privacy is dead.
* This is okay because of private companies collecting and selling the data, even to the government
* This is okay because the government is using this data to enforce laws I believe in, even though it rewards private data merchants.
* Everyone involved is evil, the contracts should be voided and the companies dissolved.
* The data collection is fine, but the government shouldn't be allowed to circumvent checks and balances by buying this data
* The government using such data without warrant is fine, but it shouldn't be sold on the open market
The most obvious answer would be that they're spending our money in a way which is contrary to our interests. If it were their own funds, and they had no powers beyond those of any other private citizen or organization, that would be one thing. But they're supposed to be acting on our behalf, in our interests rather than their own, and to many people this does not qualify.
Personally I would focus less on the fact that they've obtained this information and more on (a) the fact that this information is available on the market and (b) how they (and others) intend to use it.
People are much more complex than a single choice.
Second, while I might think the action is “not okay”, they might be reasoning from different principles, or different evidence than I am. Maybe, instead of being complicit in something I view as “not okay”, they have valid reasons to think it’s “okay”.
I’m just not so willing to condemn every person with such a broad brush just because I disagree on this conclusion.
Politics in America has become so hostile that people are now openly celebrating harm done to "the other side", so I don't doubt that there are people who will feel that way.
But I suspect that most of them will feel quite differently when the White House is controlled by the other party.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb...