Terrorist watchlist exposed via misconfigured Elasticsearch cluster

In any case, I was mostly thinking that it has to be a form of privilege to feel like a particular slippery slope hasn't happened yet. I think about how the word "privilege" is used, and its more like "exemption from some inconveniences that aren't obvious". Your post about people not noticing that civil courts and agencies have these power over assumed rights is a decent example of that.

It blows my mind that you can get an FBI informant to spend months convincing some of the poorest people in whole country to blow up a building they've never seen, promise them a quarter of a million dollars to do it, and then claim they are terrorists when they accept.

If that's not entrapment nothing is

Selective enforcement of laws is a problem, and there are plenty of laws to selectively enforce.

Land of the free. The arbitrary harassment of the population is one thing, but then there is that mountain of actual laws and regulations that would be considered an overreach even by the standards of most totalitarian dictatorships in the world. What could possibly be wrong with having chickens in the back yard?

It's a lot more straight-forward if the police investigate crimes reported to them by citizens. That's what they are supposedly there for, right?

The no fly list is much smaller, and far less ambiguous in its impact. You’re on that, you’ll find out the first time you try and fly.

About the no-fly list specifically, you should really check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List#Notable_cases . Some relevant quotes:

> TSA refused to allow an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico to cross U.S. airspace because it was carrying Colombian journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina

> On August 19, 2009, Air France flight AF-438 was not allowed to cross into U.S. airspace because of the presence on board of one Paul-Emile Dupret, a civil servant at the European Parliament for 18 years, who had written some articles criticizing the EU's policies toward Latin America because they are aligned too closely with those of the United States

> A U.S. citizen, stranded in Colombia after being placed on the No Fly List as a result of having studied in Yemen

> In October 2008, the Washington Post reported that Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent political activists as terrorists, and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases

Seems like it's not hard in practice for psychopaths in uniforms to abuse secretive powers given to them.

https://eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/section-215-expired-year-r...

> "On March 15, 2020, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act—a surveillance law with a rich history of government overreach and abuse—expired due to its sunset clause. Along with two other PATRIOT Act provisions, Section 215 lapsed after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a broader set of reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)."

And it's hard to tell how much of an implied wink is behind that quote. I know if I'd said it, I'd have done so with subtext.

On top of that, states have their own ID systems. Typically there are 2 options: just a state ID or driver’s license, that serves also as an ID. Most people in the US get driver’s license early(permits as early as 15), so there aren’t that many who has just the ID.

Now, SSN is issues upon birth. Before you know it, you can already start paying taxes.

For passport you need to apply, typically you would need it if you wanted to travel outside of the US. Otherwise, you rarely need it. This is because for the most part you deal with state bureaucracy, as most of the day to day life falls within state’s jurisdiction. Driving, getting married, divorced, buying things like a vehicle or a real estate, opening a bank account, domestic aur travel, etc. Some can live their entire lives without a passport, because a state ID will suffice. Even for things like voting in federal elections - you don’t need a passport. Contrary to many people’s beliefs, in the US the states vote, not people. This is/was by design. Now it gets more centralized, but the original concept is close to EU in terms of states autonomy. This means, that even for federal elections procedures vary greatly by state (its been on the news a lot lately). Moreover, you aren’t required to have an ID. It is not illegal not to have an ID or be off the grid.

Before 9/11 you could even go to Canada using state ID only. Now I think even it’s possible, probably only if you have some special kind of ID.

This is how things have been until recently. Then REAL ID came around. Because states rules governing ID issuance, they vary greatly. So we ended up with some states’ IDs that were as easy to counterfeit as printing a piece of paper. Some states would not do a due diligence verifying your name or address and would just take your word for it. READ ID is to addresses: mandates minimum protection level, due diligence a state needs to do to confirm address, etc. New federal regulations does not allow air travel with state ID that don’t comply with REAL ID requirements. Few states still don’t, so residents of those states will need passports for domestic travel. I think this trend will continue beyond air travel.

States aren’t required to share this data with federal government or each other. It is, however, a requirement for REAL ID. At the same time there are many businesses, that specialize in aggregating various identity information a out people. Credit bureaus are such businesses as well. They aren’t only in business of credit checks, but also identity verification, employment verification, etc. Some of these companies have federal, state and local agencies among their clients.

Fun fact: you can board a domestic flight without an ID. For example, if you lost it. TSA has a procedure to establish your identity. This includes asking you a bunch of facts about your life, such as where you lived in year X, last 3 cars you owned, your spouse full name and birthday, etc. I suspect they maybe using one of the credit bureaus identity verification product offerings.