[HN Gopher] US vendor accused of violating GDPR by reputation-sc...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       US vendor accused of violating GDPR by reputation-scoring EU
       citizens
        
       Author : LinuxBender
       Score  : 162 points
       Date   : 2023-06-24 16:44 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
        
       | cm2012 wrote:
       | You realize is you ban this kind of service, fraud rates are
       | going to multiply 10x in the EU, and new, very inconvenient
       | barriers to fraud will be put in place.
       | 
       | I'd like to see one (1) person harmed by any of the data sharing
       | that TeleSign has done here in the history of the company.
        
         | oxfordmale wrote:
         | There will be multiple persons that didn't get the loan or
         | mortgage they applied for, as their reputation score was deemed
         | to low due to data quality issues.
        
           | cm2012 wrote:
           | This "reputation score" means: Are you a bot or a human? It's
           | not a credit score. And if it was, that kind of credit score
           | _improves_ access to credit.
        
             | bckygldstn wrote:
             | Only to the extent that the scores are perfect.
        
               | 111111IIIIIII wrote:
               | And we can only reason that they are not. As parent
               | correctly implies, the purpose is risk reduction. A well
               | implemented system will accept false positives, as we saw
               | with the recent Amazon doorbell debacle.
        
               | ineedasername wrote:
               | Not necessarily:
               | 
               | No Score = higher risk, higher interest.
               | 
               | Incorrect low score = perceived higher risk, higher
               | interest rate.
               | 
               | Depending on how the risks of no/low score are weighted,
               | and how wrong the inaccurate score is, a person may very
               | well be more harmed by no score than by a low score. An
               | inaccurate score might have to be massively off the mark
               | to make a person worse off than no score at all. In the
               | US for example, people with no credit history often get
               | interest rates as high or higher than people with a
               | relatively low credit score.
               | 
               | Of course from a privacy & data protection standpoint
               | this doesn't make silently and secretly profiling
               | customers okay. The solution is probably something more
               | like a transparent opt-in system that has easy access for
               | the customer to review their data and decide which pieces
               | of it are included.
               | 
               | In the US, the balance is skewed a bit more towards
               | secrecy, and it's not opt-in either. However you can with
               | only modest difficulty check your credit score &
               | information used to calculate it, and challenge parts of
               | it that you think are inaccurate.
        
         | ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
         | "The end justifies the means"? Come on.
        
           | AndroTux wrote:
           | Sorry, but in this case it absolutely does. The alternative
           | would be, for example, to request ID verification when
           | signing up for a freaking TikTok account. Because that's what
           | you're going to get if you prevent fraud prevention.
           | 
           | I totally understand that most people don't realize how big
           | of an issue online fraud is, but believe me: it is a MASSIVE
           | problem with a lot of unforeseen consequences. There are so
           | many angles to fraud in online services that it's baffling to
           | see with what new ways scammers and fraudsters come up with
           | every day. So yes, this is something that totally justifies
           | the means.
        
             | Barrin92 wrote:
             | > The alternative would be, for example, to request ID
             | verification when signing up for a freaking TikTok account
             | 
             | What's wrong with this? When I buy booze in Germany on
             | Amazon for example this is already how it works, you verify
             | your age with your national ID (which has support for a
             | "eID" schema).
             | 
             | The big advantage is that the dedicated company doing the
             | processing is by law required to delete all data after
             | verification, so no commercial third party actually ever
             | gets or can sell your identification data. That's way more
             | secure and private than handing TikTok or other foreign
             | companies your means of identification.
             | 
             | We would be living in a _vastly_ more secure world if
             | random companies only ever got a yes /no that you initiate
             | by a dedicated, audited actor on your soil. And it
             | basically eliminates fraud as well.
        
             | Nuzzerino wrote:
             | > Sorry, but in this case it absolutely does. The
             | alternative would be, for example, to request ID
             | verification when signing up for a freaking TikTok account.
             | Because that's what you're going to get if you prevent
             | fraud prevention.
             | 
             | That sounds wonderful to me. Crack down on the shills and
             | charlatans...
        
             | phendrenad2 wrote:
             | You're absolutely right. And if companies are not allowed
             | to do fraud detection using reputation scores, they'll
             | simply treat everyone as a potential fraud, and raise rates
             | accordingly.
        
         | Tryk wrote:
         | Right, they HAD to break the law otherwise lawlessness would be
         | pervasive...
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | johnea wrote:
       | Ah yes, "reputation scoring", where have I heard of that before?
        
         | Ekaros wrote:
         | Credit score?
        
         | amindeed wrote:
         | China, I guess.
        
           | LightBug1 wrote:
           | -10 for mentioning China and/or reputation-scoring in a
           | relatively negative fashion.
           | 
           | Your credit score has decreased accordingly.
           | 
           | Have a lovey day, citizen, and do better tomorrow!
        
             | FooBarWidget wrote:
             | This tongue-in-cheeck dig on China may actually mean
             | something if it weren't for the fact that the social credit
             | system, as depicted by the media, doesn't actually exist.
             | It's wholly an invention of the media to project our own
             | fears on. This article goes in-depth about what the actual
             | situation is: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/social-
             | credit-system/
             | 
             | The bigger story is why people are so receptive to such
             | stories, and why the media keep writing them, even though
             | they're false.
        
               | newacct3 wrote:
               | The author of that article grew up in China and likely
               | has familial ties there, one could argue that those
               | factors discourage them from honest criticism
        
       | TheLoafOfBread wrote:
       | So USA is giving me a social credit? Nice.
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | Social credit administered by private firms in the US for
         | Europeans is the _good kind_ of social credit. We 'll rent it
         | to European governments.
         | 
         | edit: looks like this is identity unmasking, rather than social
         | credit. Would work well in conjunction with social credit.
        
         | 77pt77 wrote:
         | Just like them, you don't get to choose.
         | 
         | You're now forced to deal with coming mpanies you never entered
         | in an agreement with.
         | 
         | What a great system.
        
         | inetknght wrote:
         | US is all about the credit.
         | 
         | But it's not the kind of credit that you usually want.
        
         | raincom wrote:
         | Privatize everything: surveillance, background checks, social
         | credits, health scores, beauty scores, financial scores, work
         | scores, etc. That's the best way to appear democratic, while
         | blaming other autocratic, authoritarian regimes for how evil
         | the latter are.
        
           | opmelogy wrote:
           | I'm surprised speeding tickets haven't been privatized yet.
           | Get a device installed in your car that monitors the speeds
           | of cars around you. If someone violates the speed limit your
           | car reports them to the authorities and then you get a "cut"
           | of the ticket. Great way to make some extra cash while
           | ignoring the fact that everyone is getting pitted against
           | each other as a way to stay distracted from all the crap the
           | ruling class does...
        
             | raincom wrote:
             | "Many members of the general public assume that the cameras
             | are property of the locality in which they are used and
             | that the funds received go back into the community. The
             | truth is that less than 20 percent goes to the municipality
             | while the remaining goes to the service provider." [1]
             | 
             | [1] https://worldjusticeproject.org/news/3-private-
             | companies-mak...
        
       | ofslidingfeet wrote:
       | At this point, the EU and UK are doing a better job of fighting
       | for my constitutional rights in the US than the US is.
        
         | LightBug1 wrote:
         | Less of the UK, thanks ... we're sliding down the slippery
         | chain.
         | 
         | Don't join us.
        
           | gadders wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | LightBug1 wrote:
             | What? I wasn't even referring to Brexit.
             | 
             | I think this is one of those look in the mirror moments for
             | you.
        
               | starttoaster wrote:
               | > I think this is one of those look in the mirror moments
               | for you.
               | 
               | Unfortunately, self-reflection isn't the strong suit of
               | most people, and especially so for their alter ego
               | internet personas.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | dghlsakjg wrote:
         | What constitutional right do you think this violates?
         | 
         | Constitutional rights generally refer to what the government
         | can and cannot do to a person.
         | 
         | In this case it was a private company that broke no US laws as
         | far as I can tell. Why would the constitution apply?
        
           | simion314 wrote:
           | >Constitutional rights generally refer to what the government
           | can and cannot do to a person.
           | 
           | So the constitution only protects your human rights(life,
           | privacy, no discrimination) from the government? in USA you
           | need other laws to protect your rights from other people and
           | companies ?
        
             | dghlsakjg wrote:
             | Yes.
             | 
             | In most other places too. The GDPR law is exactly this. It
             | isn't in the founding document of the EU, it's a different
             | law to "protect your rights from other people and
             | companies". This is a good thing: generally you want a
             | government framework document to be relatively static and
             | hard to change for stability reasons, and you want laws to
             | be much easier to pass, revoke, amend, etc... as situations
             | change.
        
               | cycomanic wrote:
               | This is not true, many countries have a human rights
               | component in their constititution, e g. the first 10
               | articles of the German Grundgesetz (but many others). The
               | exceptionalism in the US that considers the US
               | constititution the pinnacle of lawmaking and superior to
               | all other constitutions, is quite baffling. Yes it was
               | the first and really it's influence can't be overstated,
               | but the thought that more recent ones could not learn and
               | improve on it, is puzzling.
        
               | dghlsakjg wrote:
               | The US constitution touches on human rights as well (it
               | prohibits some forms of slavery, for example). I never
               | said anything about the US constitution being better or a
               | pinnacle. I merely based my comment on constitutions and
               | how laws in general work.
               | 
               | As an aside, the Grundgesetz is a strange example since
               | it was intentionally drafted NOT to be a constitution,
               | but an interim set of laws to be replaced/superseded
               | after reunification. It even defines how a constitution
               | is to be enacted. To be strictly accurate, Germany
               | doesn't have a constitution since a constitution must be
               | voted in directly by the German people according to the
               | Grundegesetz.
        
             | cannonpalms wrote:
             | Precisely.
        
             | l33t233372 wrote:
             | The US constitution only describes the powers the
             | government has and some restrictions of those powers.
        
             | astura wrote:
             | I highly encourage you to read the text of them for
             | yourself - Constitutional rights are mostly defined in the
             | first 10 amendments to the constitution (all ratified
             | together) as well as the 13th -15th (post civil war)
             | amendments.
             | 
             | These are the text of them:
             | 
             | Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an
             | establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
             | thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
             | press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
             | and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
             | 
             | Amendment II A well regulated Militia, being necessary to
             | the security of a free State, the right of the people to
             | keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
             | 
             | Amendment III No Soldier shall, in time of peace be
             | quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner,
             | nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by
             | law.
             | 
             | Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their
             | persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
             | searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
             | Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by
             | Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place
             | to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
             | 
             | Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a
             | capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a
             | presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases
             | arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia,
             | when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor
             | shall any person be subject for the same offence to be
             | twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be
             | compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
             | himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
             | without due process of law; nor shall private property be
             | taken for public use, without just compensation.
             | 
             | Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
             | shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an
             | impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime
             | shall have been committed, which district shall have been
             | previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the
             | nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with
             | the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for
             | obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
             | Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
             | 
             | Amendment VII In Suits at common law, where the value in
             | controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial
             | by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury,
             | shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United
             | States, than according to the rules of the common law.
             | 
             | Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
             | excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
             | inflicted.
             | 
             | Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of
             | certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage
             | others retained by the people.
             | 
             | Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States
             | by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
             | are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
             | 
             | AMENDMENT XIII
             | 
             | Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
             | except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
             | have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
             | States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
             | 
             | Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
             | article by appropriate legislation.
             | 
             | AMENDMENT XIV
             | 
             | Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
             | States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
             | citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
             | reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
             | abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the
             | United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of
             | life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
             | deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
             | protection of the laws.
             | 
             | Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the
             | several States according to their respective numbers,
             | counting the whole number of persons in each State,
             | excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at
             | any election for the choice of electors for President and
             | Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in
             | Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State,
             | or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any
             | of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one
             | years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any
             | way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or
             | other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
             | reduced in the proportion which the number of such male
             | citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
             | twenty-one years of age in such State.
             | 
             | Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative
             | in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or
             | hold any office, civil or military, under the United
             | States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an
             | oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the
             | United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or
             | as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to
             | support the Constitution of the United States, shall have
             | engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or
             | given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress
             | may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such
             | disability.
             | 
             | Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United
             | States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for
             | payment of pensions and bounties for services in
             | suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be
             | questioned. But neither the United States nor any State
             | shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid
             | of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or
             | any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but
             | all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held
             | illegal and void.
             | 
             | Section 5. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by
             | appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
             | 
             | *Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment.
             | 
             | AMENDMENT XV
             | 
             | Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to
             | vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States
             | or by any State on account of race, color, or previous
             | condition of servitude--
             | 
             | Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce
             | this article by appropriate legislation.
        
               | simion314 wrote:
               | I got so many responses, so i do not want to ask
               | everyone, but what defines and guarantees your rights
               | (that are not about government) ? Regular by state laws?
               | 
               | In my country Romania the constitution is much larger,
               | much more rights and obligations are defined but probably
               | because is newer and modern(like it is in the
               | constitution that men and women will be paid the same for
               | same work)
        
               | falcolas wrote:
               | The plain text of the constitution, while interesting, is
               | of no use for driving real world behavior without the
               | centuries worth of interpretation and precedent set by
               | the Supreme Court.
        
             | kube-system wrote:
             | Yes, the thing that it refers to constituting is the US
             | government. It is a tech spec for the government.
             | 
             | There is a lot of discussion about the amendments to the US
             | Constitution, but the original US Constitution doesn't even
             | say anything about rights. The amendments are implemented
             | as limitations of the powers of the government.
             | 
             | All of the other legal rights that the US congress grants
             | are just called "laws". For instance, the legal right to be
             | free from racial segregation at a public business is not in
             | the Constitution, it is part of the legal code, alongside
             | other laws that the people (and businesses) have to follow.
        
               | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
               | > All of the other legal rights that the US congress
               | grants
               | 
               | The US government doesn't grant any rights. We already
               | have all of them at birth. The government may affirm them
               | but it isn't a higher authority giving anything to
               | anyone.
        
               | simion314 wrote:
               | >The US government doesn't grant any rights. We already
               | have all of them at birth.
               | 
               | What legal document defines "all of them" or what is not
               | a right you have ?
        
               | withinboredom wrote:
               | I think you totally missed the point.
               | 
               | You are born with the rights to be President of the US,
               | but the constitution takes it away if you aren't born a
               | US citizen. Before the constitution did that, literally
               | anyone could (all the first presidents of the US weren't
               | born US citizens, for example).
               | 
               | Any right you can imagine, you are born with them. Then
               | some legal document either affirms them, removes them, or
               | ignores them.
        
               | sjtgraham wrote:
               | That's wrong. The constitution says any natural born US
               | citizen or any person who was a citizen at the time of
               | ratification of the Constitution is eligible to be POTUS.
        
           | astura wrote:
           | In internet comments people think "Constitutional rights"
           | means "Stuff that I want."
        
             | ofslidingfeet wrote:
             | If "stuff that I want" means "not having my rights violated
             | by the government," yeah. (Compare to federal officials who
             | think "Constitutional rights" means "obscure blue laws we
             | have to work around.")
             | 
             | But if you really want to get specific, I would like for
             | our government to take action based on the recent IG report
             | outlining how they use private companies to gather dirt on
             | us and subvert our constitutional rights. Perhaps they can
             | refer to EU regulations which address similar concerns.
        
             | veave wrote:
             | Same about "human rights"
        
           | hfkwer wrote:
           | > Constitutional rights generally refer to what the
           | government can and cannot do to a person.
           | 
           | ...no? A constitutional right is one established in the
           | constitution or inferred from the language of the
           | constitution. That's it. Maybe in the US you're focused on
           | the rights in respect to your government, but people have
           | other rights. For example, in my country, I have the
           | constitutional right to go on strike, and my employer is
           | forbidden from retaliating. I also have a right to freedom,
           | property, security, and freedom from oppression. Again, no
           | one, neither the government nor my fellow citizens nor
           | corporations can infringe on these rights.
        
             | johnnyanmac wrote:
             | The US constitution is indeed made to tell the govt. What
             | it can or cannot do, not what the people can do. That's why
             | the 10th amendment boils down to "If we don't mention it
             | here, defer to State laws".
             | 
             | Now, there are indeed federal laws imposed onto the people
             | but those are not in the constitution.
        
           | ofslidingfeet wrote:
           | It violates the right to due process and to face one's
           | evidence and accusers. I don't find it particularly relevant
           | that the ruling class hides behind a facade of privatization
           | to perform this abuse, and frankly that excuse should be
           | wearing very thin these days, especially in light of the
           | recent IG report concluding very clearly that the government
           | performs exactly the abuse I just described and especially in
           | light of the Twitter files.
        
             | dantheman wrote:
             | People voluntarily interact and should be able to use
             | whatever criteria they want when doing that. As for twitter
             | files, the problem is the government involvement and
             | coercion.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | I didn't actually see anything in the Twitter files to be
               | concerned about. It looked like ordinary coordination
               | between government and a private service provider.
               | 
               | What in the Twitter files are people supposed to be upset
               | about? I think I might be missing the proper rubric to
               | fill outraged about it.
        
               | krapp wrote:
               | Even Twitter's own lawyers have admitted nothing in the
               | Twitter Files shows evidence of government coercion,
               | censorship or wrongdoing[0]. Basically Elon Musk is just
               | delusional and the people who bought into it lack any
               | capacity for critical thinking.
               | 
               | [0]https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/05/twitter-admits-in-
               | court-...
        
               | ofslidingfeet wrote:
               | Yeah the rubric is called the Bill of Rights.
        
               | tqi wrote:
               | Using that rubric, what violations do you think occurred?
        
             | dghlsakjg wrote:
             | In what way is this a violation of those rights? The right
             | to face your accusers arises from the sixth amendment and
             | applies to criminal cases being prosecuted by the
             | government. Due process comes from the fifth amendment and,
             | again, only applies to actions by the government.
             | 
             | You can be upset that this is happening, and that it is
             | legal, but there are no constitutional rights in play here.
        
               | ofslidingfeet wrote:
               | Yeah so the government has implemented payola schemes to
               | subvert those items. Again, I'm glad that this isn't
               | quite so mysterious and difficult to comprehend for
               | policymakers in the EU.
        
               | dghlsakjg wrote:
               | I'm not sure what you're talking about with payola
               | schemes.
               | 
               | This is a comment on an article about how an
               | international company violated EU law. The US government
               | (the only organization bound by constitutional law) was
               | never involved in any way.
        
               | abtinf wrote:
               | "Arises" and "comes from" betray a crucial error. Our
               | rights do not come from the constitution; the
               | constitution merely recognizes our rights.
        
               | majormajor wrote:
               | What is the value in claiming inherent rights - and many
               | across the world will quibble on just what items would be
               | in that set - when there is no natural mechanism to
               | defend those rights anyway?
               | 
               | An appeal to authority will only get you so far in an
               | ungoverned state of nature.
               | 
               | And when it comes to non-governmental data collection
               | businesses in the US, we are in just that state. There's
               | no constitution saying we should have any rights to
               | privacy against them. I _think_ we _should_ have that
               | right; but it would take a law to actually make them
               | respect that.
        
               | gbear605 wrote:
               | The GDPR is doing a good job at it, even across an ocean.
               | Thank goodness for the EU.
        
               | majormajor wrote:
               | But the GDPR, like the Constitution, is a written
               | artifact; pre-GDPR "recognition" of any of those rights,
               | any "inherent" nature of them was not doing anything.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | sclarisse wrote:
               | Yeah; there's a case for the ninth and tenth, but that's
               | about it. And those never really work.
        
               | MereInterest wrote:
               | Arguably, the fourth amendment, though this would be a
               | rather large departure from its current interpretation.
               | The fourth amendment states that "[t]he right of the
               | people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
               | effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
               | shall not be violated..." It does not state from whom
               | these violations may not occur, so this clause would not
               | be limited to violations being performed by the
               | government. Therefore, this could be interpreted just as
               | a limitation of the government against violating this
               | right, but also the allowance of the government to
               | prevent other violations.
        
             | golemotron wrote:
             | > It violates the right to due process and to face one's
             | evidence and accusers.
             | 
             | Due process is from the government when they accuse you of
             | a crime. In this case, the government is not attacking your
             | privacy and there are no accusers.
        
             | Manuel_D wrote:
             | This is only a right in a court of law. Unfortunately,
             | people can accuse you of rape on a college campus and you
             | have no right to see the evidence against you even though
             | the consequence is being marked as a rapist for life (you
             | won't go to prison for a Title IX conviction, but it'll
             | show up if you ever reapply to college, it shows up for the
             | Bar Association, and on security clearance investigations).
        
               | mcpackieh wrote:
               | It's a clear-cut end-run around the constitution,
               | particularly so in the case of state schools, but trying
               | to address this will have you touching a third rail with
               | enough power in it to fry your political aspirations
               | forever.
        
               | withinboredom wrote:
               | This was some stupid precedent set.
               | 
               | Hopefully someday, someone will successfully argue that
               | the government _not_ enforcing the constitutional bill of
               | rights in a civil setting is the same as a criminal
               | setting.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
           | I think the thing that is relevant here is that, as opposed
           | to what life was like at the end of the 18th century, there
           | are now corporations that are so large and powerful that they
           | can control many levers of what it means to participate in
           | society in today's age, and thus constitutional freedoms
           | should apply to them as well.
           | 
           | For example, much has been written on HN about how credit
           | card companies essentially control what is acceptable for
           | online content (at least online content that one might pay
           | for). It may be correct as to "the letter of the law" that
           | these companies shouldn't have to abide by freedom of speech
           | or association, but the fact on the ground is that there are
           | nearly no other options if the 4 main CC companies decide
           | they don't want to allow you to take payment (please don't
           | let this devolve into a discussion about crypto...)
           | 
           | The US already recognizes this when it comes to credit
           | bureaus - the 3 major bureaus are highly regulated and the
           | types of information they are allowed to collect, use and
           | share is explicitly detailed. I see no reason why phone
           | companies should get a free pass.
        
         | cscurmudgeon wrote:
         | 1. As the other comment mentions, this is a Belgian company
         | 
         | 2. Following the common argument in USA/China/TikTok debates,
         | won't EU citizens be safer with their private data in the US
         | than in the EU, far away from their own governments?
        
           | surgical_fire wrote:
           | No.
        
       | dmix wrote:
       | There's a ton of these anti-fraud data collection companies. That
       | industry (plus marketing/credit card data) is probably the lowest
       | hanging fruit to find privacy violations, much more so than the
       | usual GDPR targets you often hear about.
       | 
       | Maybe they can do the location tracking ones too that western
       | police regularly buy.
        
       | say_it_as_it_is wrote:
       | Does advertising exist anywhere in Europe? What a utopia!
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | Well they are gradually banning billboards entirely in Poland:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/l0p31m/in_poland_we...
        
           | littlestymaar wrote:
           | A city-wide billboard ban also happened in Grenoble (France)
           | since 2014.
        
       | metaphor wrote:
       | > _When BICS acquired TeleSign in 2017, it began to fall under
       | the partial control of BICS ' parent company, Belgian telecom
       | giant Proximus. Proximus held a partial stake in BICS, which
       | Proximus spun off from its own operations in 1997._
       | 
       | > _In 2021, Proximus bought out BICS ' other shareholders, making
       | it the sole owner of both the telecom interchange and TeleSign._
       | 
       | Curious how the article's headline goes out of its way to
       | emphasize "US vendor" when the puppet masters in the underlying
       | corporate structure are entirely Belgian.
        
       | McDyver wrote:
       | Link to noyb's site, with a template to request whether your
       | number is processed by TeleSign:
       | 
       | https://noyb.eu/en/telesign-profiles-half-worlds-phone-users
        
         | popcalc wrote:
         | What goes in the client number field?
        
           | the_mitsuhiko wrote:
           | I assume it's the customer account number on the invoice with
           | your phone provider since you need to attach it.
        
       | jgalt212 wrote:
       | The person (no name, no home address, personal id #) who controls
       | phone number 555-1234 has a fraud score of X. It's amazing to me
       | that this is a GDPR violation. What a poorly designed rule.
        
       | WheatMillington wrote:
       | Americans: haha look at those dystopian Chinese and their social
       | credit score.
       | 
       | Also Americans: credit score, reputation score, every other
       | ranking imaginable performed by non accountable corporations.
        
         | eyphka wrote:
         | I'm not sure why it says US when the company owning is Belgian
         | I believe.
        
           | manmal wrote:
           | TeleSign is based in California.
        
             | eyphka wrote:
             | Got it, but the owning parent company was Belgian, isn't
             | it?
        
         | Manuel_D wrote:
         | Credit score has a regulated scoring system. It's all based on
         | your debts, and repayment of said debts. You're not going to
         | lose credit score based on your vote.
        
           | whimsicalism wrote:
           | It's true that lending is heavily regulated in the US.
           | However I know for a fact that there are startups here that
           | are designing credit scores for foreign markets in developing
           | countries that include all sorts of factors that we would
           | consider bad in the US.
        
             | xwdv wrote:
             | What exactly is wrong with that? How else would you expect
             | to quantify the risk of lending money to some foreign
             | individual? Without such a score, the result is simple: you
             | don't lend money.
             | 
             | If the score can includes factors that increase the odds of
             | positive ROI, that is better for the lender. There is no
             | incentive to make a "biased" score as that would create a
             | market opportunity for someone else. Scores are built to
             | whatever is allowed by regulation or lack thereof.
        
               | withinboredom wrote:
               | Or, (how it works here), I show them my employment
               | contract and they look at my current debts. If the
               | income:debt ratio is too risky for them ... they say no.
               | It's a bit more invasive for other forms of income
               | (foreign/capital gains/self-employment) in that they want
               | to see bank statements for the last three years and take
               | the average amount coming in as you income. There are no
               | magic scores, or hidden factors. It's just, 'can you
               | afford to feed yourself and pay your mortgage if you buy
               | this house.'
        
               | dnissley wrote:
               | This seems like semantics. Presumably they're taking
               | these factors and putting them into some kind of
               | calculation which probably outputs something like a...
               | score.
               | 
               | Maybe what you are criticizing is a particular input in
               | that calculation? I notice you don't mention repayment of
               | past debts, for example.
        
               | ohgodplsno wrote:
               | That score doesn't follow you your whole life. There are
               | some files in many countries that list failures to pay
               | off debts, but their access is extremely controlled and
               | subject to verification.
               | 
               | My "credit score" exists for 30 minutes while my bank
               | gets my proof of income and ID, and that's it. In the
               | same way, my landlord does not get access to any of these
               | files, because it's none of his business. It is illegal
               | to keep track of individuals like this. In the US, this
               | incentivizes keeping individuals in poverty, and its ease
               | of access means that it is easy for any predatory lending
               | institution to explicitly target people with low credit
               | scores. It creates de facto castes.
        
               | epcoa wrote:
               | > That score doesn't follow you your whole life.
               | 
               | Nor does any score in the US - none of the inputs, even
               | bankruptcy, last more than several years.
               | 
               | > In the same way, my landlord does not get access to any
               | of these files, because it's none of his business
               | 
               | Your reliability in paying definitely seems like it would
               | be their business.
               | 
               | > In the US, this incentivizes keeping individuals in
               | poverty
               | 
               | This is not supported by the data.
        
               | dnissley wrote:
               | What do you make of these findings?
               | 
               | https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-
               | notes/are-...
               | 
               |  _As shown in the three panels, credit scores are
               | distributed over the entire support for all three income
               | groups, and, apart from the distribution of the high-
               | income group having a larger mass at the high end of the
               | distribution support, the shapes of the histograms of
               | high- and middle-income groups are broadly consistent.
               | Indeed, even among the high-income consumers, a
               | significant mass of consumers have credit scores lower
               | than 680, commonly known as "nonprime" or "subprime"
               | borrowers._
        
           | pton_xd wrote:
           | Loan companies could compute a population's exact historical
           | credit risk by using every bit of past data available, right?
           | But they can't use that calculated credit risk to issue loans
           | because it might contain "regulated" attributes like gender,
           | race, religion, etc.
           | 
           | What about developing their "clean" model by minimizing
           | errors between it and the actual model? The clean model
           | wouldn't contain any regulated inputs but will be as close as
           | you can get to the real thing.
           | 
           | What's the difference, effectively?
        
           | Mystery-Machine wrote:
           | Social score is also not shot put someone's ass. It's
           | calculated based on your criminal record and some other
           | factors. Seems like, as per Wikipedia, it's mostly focused on
           | company social credit scores.
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System
        
             | Manuel_D wrote:
             | "...and some other factors." Nice handwaving. From your own
             | link:
             | 
             | > In addition to dishonest and fraudulent financial
             | behavior, there has been proposals in some cities to
             | officially list several behaviors as negative factors of
             | credit ratings, including playing loud music or eating in
             | rapid transits,[68] violating traffic rules such as
             | jaywalking and red-light violations,[76][83] making
             | reservations at restaurants or hotels, but not showing
             | up,[86] failing to correctly sort personal
             | waste,[96][97][81]
             | 
             | I have no idea why you thought this link would help you
             | make your case. Human rights organizations the world over
             | criticize the social credit score:
             | https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-human-rights-implications-
             | of-c...
        
               | bllguo wrote:
               | the world over? you mean the US and UK? organizations
               | with negligible representation from people who belong to
               | non-Anglo cultures?
               | 
               | the social credit myth has been busted plenty of times.
               | it's a cursory search away.
        
         | CoastalCoder wrote:
         | IIUC the parent comment, here's some similar logic:
         | 
         | (a) (some) right-handed people are on diets.
         | 
         | (b) (some) right-handed people are gaining weight.
         | 
         | (c) ergo, right-handed people suck at dieting.
        
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