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by emerman
3362 days ago
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So this is certainly an interesting idea - it's entertaining and it feels enlightening but the reasoning behind it seems a bit off base. The assumption behind this effort seems to be a sort of retribution-based. So there's a couple things wrong with that - staff are the only ones using computers, not Members, and it doesn't bother us too much. We expect none of our browsing history to be private and are used to having every part of our jobs as public information - see Legistorm. Members are not going to care if their staff's web browsing information is public - even if it did go beyond just who is visiting govtrack and when. They'd fire the staff they needed to without hesitation and still show no remorse for their vote. This is without even mentioning that only Republican offices voted in support of the rollback of the FCC regulation. It's a harder issue to solve, but the problem really is that business interests will almost always trump constituent concerns. Having privacy groups come meet with Congressmembers helps - setting up an organized campaign helps somewhat too. But for Republicans, this bill was only a matter of what made economic sense. |
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It's not to harm you, the staffer who already knows everything you do is being tracked.
Instead, I think it is to start conversations with less technically-inclined people about privacy. That the conversation can start with data from the offices of people who passed this legislation is important, because explaining it in a more broader sense can be difficult and, potentially, scary.
It's good to hear you, as Congressional staff, know that your history is already tracked. GovTrack is doing nothing more than what you already expect. Just think if CNN started dumping this data for everyone in the country to start a conversation, though; that would be scarier and more of an invasion of privacy against unwitting citizens.
Because GovTrack is only publishing your internet accesses of its site - rather than the much wider amount of information on Legistorm - this gives me a great way to inform people about what happens.
I've already started a conversation with my friends and family about what tracking really happens on the internet.
I have been surprised at the misunderstandings many of my friends have about what can and cannot be tracked by various actors online. The huge reach of Facebook and Google in tracking people and knowing what you like has confused many people about the difference between what those private companies know and what the ISP knows.
I applaud GovTrack for providing this. Releasing it close to when the recent bill was passed by both houses of Congress is handy timing that will let that conversation continue with my less-tech-oriented friends and family.
> It's a harder issue to solve, but the problem really is that business interests will almost always trump constituent concerns.
And that's the conversation I can continue to have with my friends and family, thanks to this history readout on GovTrack.