Surprise: Minnesota Killer Used Data Brokers To Target And Murder Politicians
from the unsurprising-developments dept
For years we’ve noted how this country’s corrupt inability to protect consumer security, regulate data brokers, or pass even a baseline privacy law was going to have increasingly deadly consequences. Endless signs have been there; from stalkers abusing app and cell phone data to pursue their victims, to right wing extremists using data broker data to target vulnerable women seeking reproductive care.
Fast forward to this week, when court documents revealed that the killer of Minnesota representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, used data broker information to obtain their home addresses:
“The accused Minneapolis assassin allegedly used data brokers as a key part of his plot to track down and murder Democratic lawmakers,” Ron Wyden, the US senator from Oregon, tells WIRED. “Congress doesn’t need any more proof that people are being killed based on data for sale to anyone with a credit card. Every single American’s safety is at risk until Congress cracks down on this sleazy industry.”
To be very clear, both of the lawmakers’ addresses were available via their websites, and this information was already widely available online. Home addresses, even of prominent lawmakers, are generally widely available through public records.
That said, in this case, the court docs indicate the killer obtained the information through a dozen of different name and address websites that collect their data from a massive international web of barely-regulated data brokers.
This isn’t even the worst case scenario for the U.S. and its pathetic privacy standards. This was only name and addresses; most data brokers collect detailed minutiae about your every daily habit, including your movement patterns down to the meter, your online browsing behaviors down to the second, your sexual preferences, your bad driving habits, your home electricity usage, and so much more.
There’s zero meaningful oversight of the sector. Generally, data brokers and companies try to hide behind claims that they “anonymize” this data. A meaningless term given study after study has shown that users in such datasets can be easily identified with just a little extra information and a few seconds of work.
There’s bottomless potential for far worse scandals and potential deaths. All because the United States has, time and time and time again, put making money over public safety and even national security. It’s a hard lesson we’re going to learn again and again and again until Congressional lawmakers shake off the corruption and figure out how to craft competent legislation. Or we replace them.
In other words, prepare to be waiting a while.
Filed Under: assasination, data brokers, mark hortman, melissa hortman, minnesota, privacy, ron wyden, scandals, security, vance boelter
