Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site violates its rules

Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by WaitWaitWha on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:15PM (#28449314)

I am confused by much of this.

If the information collected is public, why is this a not equivalent to other politically motivated data collection? (Or, is the information collected not public?)

There are sites that collect, collate, cross reference and publish individuals' OSINT repeatedly on various political topics. (voting records, financial contributions, gun ownership, financials, etc.)

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Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by Spivak on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:27PM (#28449483)

Sure, but this is really different than some vague mostly public demographic info. If you posted any of the the kind of information this site was collecting on a message board it would be labeled as some combination of stalking, harassment, and doxxing.

This whole thing seems absolutely nuts.

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Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by 1123581321 on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:32PM (#28449564)

I was confused by it too, because I thought privately run tip line contact forms were relatively common, but I changed my mind after building this Google query. The only notable private organization doing it seems to be CrimeStoppers, and they are a de facto public organization due to how closely they work with police and major local media. So this does seem to be a legal innovation and it makes sense that there would be organizations and vendors having to react to it for the first time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tip+line+contact+form+-%22po...

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Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by detaro on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:24PM (#28449439)

Why would who got what medical treatment and who helped with that be public information?

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Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by splintercell on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:38PM (#28449648)

Just like if you filed a report against a neighbor for domestic violence, you’re allowed to report crime on Citizen style or Neighborhood app or WhatsApp groups. Are any of these things public information?

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Re:Even Epik says the Texas abortion “whistleblower” site vi... by Shank on Tuesday September 07, 2021 @04:21PM (#28449404)

> (Or, is the information collected not public?)

It's not public. The site was soliciting PII "tips" about abortions. Ostensibly someone might tweet out their address, phone number, name, and having an illegal abortion, in which case it would be public. But in this case, the vast majority of tips aren't going to be public.

The difference with most OSINT stuff is that the information is public in some way or valuable to the public.

Categorically, the site would actually be violating many privacy laws in many states, including things like GDPR. It's definitely a cross-border legal minefield anyways, so it makes a lot of sense why it would be against the terms of service to operate a site specifically to test these boundaries. Sure, it may be a Texas law, but where are the servers? Where are the people submitting the information? Where are the people currently located with information being submitted about? Etc.

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