[quitit]

>"But stalkers!"

The stalkers are already in the house, this list isn't exhaustive by any means:

USA:

N.J. cop used police databases to stalk ex-girlfriend, investigators say https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2023/01/nj-cop-used-police-datab...

Officer Fired for Allegedly Using Police Database to Stalk, Harass Women https://www.newsweek.com/officer-fired-allegedly-using-polic...

Australia:

Former policeman accused of using force database to stalk ex-wife and girlfriend https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/former-policeman...

Former federal police officer faces new charges over stalking of ex-girlfriend https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6138318/former-federa...

(Note the two above articles are not the same person)

UK: Met police officer 'used CCTV cameras to stalk his ex-girlfriend after telling her to take up sex work to pay her bills' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11868575/Met-police...

Creepy cop saw attractive woman on the road and 'looked up her license plate number so he could stalk her on Facebook' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178556/Officer-Jef...

Large miss-use in just California:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/california-police-misu...

[clippyplz]

I agree with what you're saying, but don't understand the point - if police officers in the US (about a million adult professionals) are abusing this data, wouldn't opening it up to ~300 million random people result in far more abuse than we're already seeing?

[quitit]

There’s three main points here:

1. Don’t build systems that can be abused to start with, because they will be abused, but if we must build one then see point 2:

2. Put access to this sensitive information behind a judge’s signature. Because see point 3:

3. When it comes to this kind of data: There are no “good guys” and “bad guys” - we should assume that everyone is a potential bad guy.

Whenever you hear the “good guys” justification, immediately remind yourself of the ways the “good guys” have been found to be “bad guys” in sheep’s clothing.

Whenever you hear someone use the “nothing to hide” argument, remind yourself that none of the victims in these stories had anything to hide, nor had they done anything wrong. (Much like the thousands of women who die from partner abuse every year.)