John Oliver Blackmails Congress with Their Own Digital Data | Hacker News Reader

John Oliver Blackmails Congress with Their Own Digital Data

rollingstone.com

70 pointslamename13 comments

> He and his staff paid for the data of a subset of individuals with traits that a lot of Congressmen have, and who were online within five miles of the Capitol building. Though Oliver was cagey about what they found, he indicated they were able to identify several specific lawmakers and their potentially problematic search histories. But he didn’t reveal anything more than that. Instead, he indicated that his preferred solution was for lawmakers to pass laws making the release of that kind of personal info illegal.

It's likely that Oliver et al now know the most intimate details of the personal browsing and app-usage histories of many members of Congress, because it shouldn't be too hard for a competent data scientist to compare and match data from all desktop and mobile devices within five miles of the capitol with the known (public) schedules and locations of every member of Congress. Alas, members of Congress have only themselves to blame for this, because they are the only ones who can put a stop to this kind of invasive, pervasive, insidious collection of personal data. They're the only ones who could make it illegal.

Everything Oliver and his people have done is... legal!

Don't worry, Congress will pass a law that makes releasing such data of a current or former member of Congress illegal. Everyone else? Can't be bothered.

Similar to when the independent in the UK asked for Theresa May's search history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-w...

That’s probably already covered under some “national security” catch-all somewhere.

For a recent example look at what happens if a journalist happens to gain access to the dairy of a Biden child and even decides to not publish it: https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-raids-project-veritas-foun...

You think the FBI is going to start kicking in doors if you tell them that someone stole your diary? The local police will probably laugh at you, the FBI won't even listen. It's already a two tier system when it comes to the rich and powerful and their private information.

I'm guessing Oliver's data doesn't make anyone important enough look bad otherwise his door will probably get kicked in soon as well.

And then he releases the data as a retaliation? Aside from this possibility, that would be a very unwise move if alone for the Streisand effect.

As this data bay be obtained not only by John Oliver but anybody else what would stop a foreign actor to do so and to use it for real blackmailing? The wisest move is not to collect the data in the first place (and to forbid the collection). For everyone. The collector cannot know what the data obtained can reveal when combined with other data therefore it makes no sense to only not collect for congress people (how would the collector even know?).

The Streisand effect only works if you don't have the media in your pocket. The media was happy to carry water on the Hunter Biden laptop story until after the election, I suspect most people don't know about the diary and the FBI's response to it. They just won't cover it like they haven't covered a lot of things in the past few years.

I'm sure some exec at HBO makes the final call on what they actually publish, if Oliver has actually anything the most it probably results in is that exec being owed some favors down the line.

Where would someone start if they wanted to embarrass some public officials of their own? How much would it cost?

Facebook is a good place to start. This is how it works on your roommate:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17112559

How many of John Oliver's shows lead to outcomes? Can effectiveness of different approaches be calculated?

I'm not sure that i would consider what John Oliver is doing as blackmail. I'll leave that for others to opine...but damn, i really like this because my hope is that it might lead to some positive legislative work. If we fast-forward to the future, and it *DOES* pan out to some good that gets legislated, it would be somewhat sad...Sad because it would mean that using logic, reason, etc. failed to get legislation, and the only thing that works is publicity, bad press, etc. /sigh

Then one could also say, they only thing that worked was educating members of congress. I'd say he is forcing them to consider another perspective, in the hope they learn something.

You might be right! Either way, I sure hope they learn something, and better that they do something!

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