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user-inactivated  ·  1707 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: New details on Palantir, the commerical spying tool for law enforcement

And we're already in that age. The modernization of police forces and the introduction of nationwide crime databases have already had these types of consequences. Years ago I read a book written by an ex-FBI agent about how to, basically, avoid getting arrested. The book itself is pretty terrible, loaded with unfunny coined terms he invented and tough-guy macho bullshit, but an important point he raised was that prior to technology, a brush up with the law didn't have to carry lifelong consequences. A lack of computerized databases meant all you needed to do to was skip town and nobody would ever know. There were only paper records at best. Another point he made was police services used to be a lot more corrupt, which was bad, but you could occasionally make evidence of your wrongdoing disappear if someone in town could vouch for you.

Story time. A relative (can't say who) and their friends stole a bunch of stuff from a record store when they were 19 or so. Ended up getting arrested, booked into jail, the works. What happened? A detective that lived on the same street made the conviction "disappear." Now almost 50 years later it may as well have not existed. Dude went on to be a very high up technology manager (I think almost the CTO?, assistant vice president?) at a huge company. Fuck-you money. Now? Good luck. We might not have social credit here in the Western world but I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow's kids have to optimize their score while they're CEOing some charity just to get into college and be guaranteed a 1/5 chance at the middle-class.

Let's hope we don't get this.