John Oliver Blackmails Congress With Their Own Digital Data

[The Mark]

I was watching that segment on YT last night, and perhaps ironically was wondering how activists could use the flaws in the system to pressure lawmakers to fix them, when suddenly JO starts foreshadowing what they did.

Damn but that was some good timing on that show, they did well.

 

[Deuce]

****ing with people's lives at a level that falls just short of extortion is legal, yes I do see the point you're making, but why am I still feeling extorted, and why is half the country
jumping around like puppets on a string?
It's NOT illegal but it's immoral enough to merit being an ass-kicking offense and these companies believe that they can hide from consumers by just saying "We're not breaking any laws!"

The reason Mister Haney's character is so funny is because once upon a time society never would have tolerated a guy like that for long.
This is not Mister Haney, it's Mister Haney's steroid enhanced army.
Cambridge Analytica is causing innocent people real pain, and damage.

The entire point is that he wants this to become illegal.

 

[Superfly]

He's not targeting anyone specific, so I'm not sure he can effectively extort someone who doesn't know what he has, if anything, and who hasn't been presented with the information or a definitive "quo". He's addressing 535 people, and I presume the overwhelming majority don't have problematic publicly available data.

And this misses for the forest for the trees. The problem is those data are available for a price and can be used, if effective for extortion by John Oliver, by people who might require significantly more than privacy regulations in return for being silent.

Gonna disagree with you, luv. If you've ****ed up, you know. The people who have information that they want to remain hidden know full well what Oliver has, and they're probably sweating in their underoos right now.

 

[jonny5]

I think they'd have to specifically target individuals rather than vaguely mentioning that some people they had yet to identify in the capitol were in the folder.

Also at this point, the lawyers for their show have to be good at this kind of thing, so it's probably fine.

Well, like I said, given the source, it can easily fall under some sort of comedy speech. Hes making a point rather than seriously threatening congress to get them to do something. Instead extorting them, he should just expose them, no quid needed.

 

[Common Sense 1]

1. Use a VPN when on line.

2. Mr Oliver better be prepared for a friendly visit from the FBI.

 

[JasperL]

Gonna disagree with you, luv. If you've ****ed up, you know. The people who have information that they want to remain hidden know full well what Oliver has, and they're probably sweating in their underoos right now.

Perhaps they know if they have viewed something embarrassing, but they don't know if John Oliver has that information. He might know they are a frequent visitor to Youporn or something, but not that other site with child porn, or searched "child porn sites".... or whatever. I think he'd have to contact a member of Congress, tell them what information he had, then make a demand. He's done none of that.

I agree with people upstream that he ought to just release the information he bought, legally, and see what the fallout is. It's hard to imagine that data that the John Oliver can purchase is illegal to release, since it's basically public information.

 

[Schism]

Just because something may be legal doesn't make it ethical.

But then again, Democrats aren't known for being ethical.

 

[cpwill]

I do think that there is a problem with this aggregation of personal data through data mining and packaging. The 4th should be expanded to include our digital footprints as part of our papers.

But I'm not sure extorting Congress is a good way to go about it.

The average age in the Senate appears to be about..... (squints)..... 97. I would have to agree with OP here that, unless they are motivated to ask their staffers what the hell this is all about, they aren't going to act.