<story><title>CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vymn/cdc-tracked-phones-location-data-curfews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darkerside</author><text>&amp;gt; Can someone name a scarrier (sp) entity that could be tracking you?&lt;p&gt;... The Mafia? Any other criminal or terrorist organization or individual? The police operating under an incorrect warrant? A creepy ex?&lt;p&gt;Unless you buy into conspiracies, the CDC is at worst going to do what it thinks is best for you, and is constrained by constitutional checks and balances.</text></item><item><author>version_five</author><text>&amp;gt;  CDC are the least scary people buying this data&lt;p&gt;Most buyers probably just want to target advertising at me, or otherwise grab my attention. The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions. And they seem to think they can have unchecked power by invoking &amp;quot;science&amp;quot;. Can someone name a scarrier entity that could be tracking you?&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t agree with anybody tracking me, but even say insurance companies which is the other worst thing that comes to mind have limited purview in what they might be interested in</text></item><item><author>samschooler</author><text>See the issue here is that this data exists at all and it’s purchasable by any group. I feel like the CDC are the least scary people buying this data. And from the looks of it they used it for medical research, which if similar in style to other medical research is bound by boards and ethics committees.&lt;p&gt;What we aren’t writing about in this article are the groups using this data Cambridge Analytica style to sway political opinion, and other less than stellar purposes.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ByteJockey</author><text>&amp;gt; the CDC is at worst going to do what it thinks is best for you&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t want to get involved with what the CDC is doing here (because they&amp;#x27;re probably not doing anything too nefarious), but I would like to pull this point out. The intentions of an institution (or at least surface level justifications) are kind of unrelated to the point. What an institution thinks is best for someone and what that individual thinks is best for themselves are often quite different.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m reminded of the old CS Lewis quote here:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.</text></comment>
<story><title>CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vymn/cdc-tracked-phones-location-data-curfews</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darkerside</author><text>&amp;gt; Can someone name a scarrier (sp) entity that could be tracking you?&lt;p&gt;... The Mafia? Any other criminal or terrorist organization or individual? The police operating under an incorrect warrant? A creepy ex?&lt;p&gt;Unless you buy into conspiracies, the CDC is at worst going to do what it thinks is best for you, and is constrained by constitutional checks and balances.</text></item><item><author>version_five</author><text>&amp;gt;  CDC are the least scary people buying this data&lt;p&gt;Most buyers probably just want to target advertising at me, or otherwise grab my attention. The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions. And they seem to think they can have unchecked power by invoking &amp;quot;science&amp;quot;. Can someone name a scarrier entity that could be tracking you?&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t agree with anybody tracking me, but even say insurance companies which is the other worst thing that comes to mind have limited purview in what they might be interested in</text></item><item><author>samschooler</author><text>See the issue here is that this data exists at all and it’s purchasable by any group. I feel like the CDC are the least scary people buying this data. And from the looks of it they used it for medical research, which if similar in style to other medical research is bound by boards and ethics committees.&lt;p&gt;What we aren’t writing about in this article are the groups using this data Cambridge Analytica style to sway political opinion, and other less than stellar purposes.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway0a5e</author><text>&amp;gt;and is constrained by constitutional checks and balances.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t go a decade of American history without some sort of &amp;quot;yeah that&amp;#x27;s F&amp;#x27;ed up&amp;quot; thing happening that was done with good intentions.  Saying constitutional checks and balances prevent bad things from happening is like when the police say they investigated themselves.  In reality the public needs to remain vigilant and press the issue.</text></comment>