[dylan604]

No private industry will do anything without it being profitable. Handing it over as a public service would mean they are making money with that data in other ways. What would be those other ways? I can't think of anything that's not dystopian hell, so maybe to make that not legal???

[matthewdgreen]

The answer is that these databases are hugely valuable for targeted advertising and marketing, and if they’re relatively cheap to build then that makes everything even easier. Law enforcement gets access because in most countries the law allows them to make data requests to existing companies, and “we aren’t going to help the cops solve a murder” is bad PR when you’ve already collected the relevant data.

[amy214]

"let me put this vending machine in your store, you get a cut"

"let me put this camera in your store, you get $XX/month and security"

Just do that in stores in high traffic areas. Now you've got a big dataset. Overlap with location data to put a name to the face. Scifi has long seen this eg big brother eg minority reports

[mikrotikker]

The Inland Revenue Dept in NZ sold the data on its citizens to Facebook. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/532905/ird-to-stop-shari...

[toomuchtodo]

https://www.flocksafety.com/devices/flock-nova

https://www.flocksafety.com/articles/flock-safety-secures-ma...

[bradknowles]

VCs and PE will fund anything, especially if someone like Peter Thiel tells them that Palantir will make trillions of dollars selling this information to their bestest buddies in all the governments that they own.

[ndsipa_pomu]

Maybe the company contacts the people they've identified at a crime scene and offer them anonymity for a price. The police then only get details of the identified people who haven't paid.

[b112]

This has already happened, and the police and others pay for access.

[spwa4]

The police and government are also how they get permission, at least in London, so using law to prevent this ... doesn't seem like it'll be possible.

Although it does seem relevant. Given that these models run easily on phones 2 generations old (that's what they use in pubs, and if they use it in pubs, they use it everywhere), how will you stop it, even if you do get a law against it?

[BirAdam]

Sufficient tax breaks would likely do it.