Hacker News Reader

Comment by ComputerGuru | Hacker News Reader

Is it just me, or is it really creepy that anyone can dig up this sort of info about your income/pension/insurance/etc?

Illinois' search is no better, but it does not display dollar amount details: https://icash.illinois.gov/

In Sweden, tax records are public information, so every year around tax time, tabloids will print long lists of names of "the richest people in YOUR neighborhood". Compared to that, this is nothing.

It is also creepy that you can just keep incrementing the property id in the URL and churn through the results.

Property tax searches are a great way to DOX someone, btw.

DOX?

To find and release publicly personal information about someone -- name, address, phone number, and even SSN and credit card numbers -- in such away that they become identifiable to just about anyone online.

This was a hot topic a few months back when reddit had to deal with it: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/10/truth-lies-doxxing-inte...

Thanks! And thanks to officemonkey, too! (But I can't reply to two comments with a single one, I think.)

Doxing is one of the forms of protected free speech that reddit bans.

Protected speech?

It's not actually illegal in the United States. As opposed to child porn that does not have 1st amendment protections.

It would not be legal (in general) in EU. Data Protection etc.

Yes, child porn is banned on reddit. But things that are protected free speech, but not child porn ("sexually suggestive images of minors") are also banned on reddit.

A term used to describe speech protected under the US Constitution / First Amendement, i.e. it's illegal for the government to ban this sort of speech (they can ban other sorts of speech). Reddit is based in USA, and learn close to the US legal definition of free speech (except in some cases).

Since Reddit isn't the federal government, I fail to see the issue with them deciding what forms of speech are and are not acceptable for their forum.

Eh, call my annoyed. When people complained about some subreddits that took sneaky sexualised photos of people (usually women) without their consent or knowledge, "free speech" was cited as a reason as to why it couldn't be closed. However when people started tracking down these photographers and publishing their personal info, suddenly that speech should be blocked.

Reddit seems to think it's OK to ban some protected speech to protect straight dude who want to perv at women, but it's not OK to ban some protected speech to protect women from being photographed in public.

(I think the creepshots subreddits probably should have been banned earlier)

There's good evidence that some of the creepshots were just regular photographs taken from existing websites, sometimes cropped or mirrored, and then given a new context. Some of this was done just to troll - linking a local meet subreddit to a creepshot group could generate a lot of anger.

People being angry about photos is one thing; real life information about people can lead to devastating witch-hunts and intense campaigns of harassment.

So I guess I can see why Reddit bans one, but not the other.

Sure, some of the creepshots and other things might be other photos. Doesn't mean all aren't though, one must address that.

People being angry about photos is one thing; real life information about people can lead to devastating witch-hunts and intense campaigns of harassment.

Sexualized photos of people taken without their consent is bad. The very fact of taking sexualized photos without consent/knowledge (e.g. upskirt photos) is harassment.

Witch-hunts can be a problem. People violating privacy and harassing people and then avoiding any consequences is a problem too.

So I guess I can see why Reddit bans one, but not the other.

The cynic in me thinks it's because of the general gender of who's affected.

> Sexualized photos of people taken without their consent is bad. The very fact of taking sexualized photos without consent/knowledge (e.g. upskirt photos) is harassment.

Oh yes, I agree.

DOX: Search for and compile records about a specific person in order to hack/prank/harass/thieve them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com