Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Max's avatar

It's simply absurd that there is a debilitating concern about privacy when it comes to public sector activities while the private sector and especially the tech giants are by far the bigger threat in the privacy realm.

The focus on privacy in the public sector is weaponized by multiple actors. On one side, it is the target of bad faith complaining by those that wish to diminish the government's capabilities and on the other it is a useful bureaucratic scapegoat in the face of larger, structural issues.

Expand full comment
Jacob Giovia's avatar

This is really great, Matt! Privacy concerns also block inter-agency information sharing, and then they enter into bizarre and incomplete MOUs are created to 'share what we can'.

But the claim that no one is counting cannot be overstated. In Virginia, for example, the best eviction data we have is from an academic institution who has an unpaid intern pull the numbers from the court records. Due to the scale, the data is only regional. To the point of the article, eviction data is registered twice already by statute and we don't care to count; one being the court documentation mentioned, but another by sheriff's when they place a notice of eviction.

Expand full comment
121 more comments...

No posts