Privacy Please
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Privacy Please
S6, E242 - The Gun Industry Is Tracking More Than Just Your Purchases
ProPublica's investigation reveals the National Shooting Sports Foundation has been secretly sharing gun buyers' personal information, including underwear sizes, for political purposes. This privacy breach raises serious concerns about data exploitation even in industries that publicly position themselves as defenders of individual rights.
• Gun owners group demands federal investigation into firearms industry data sharing
• Personal data shared included underwear sizes and was allegedly used for political targeting
• NSSF collaborated with Cambridge Analytica to enhance voter data
• Privacy concerns should transcend political divides - "Privacy is an everybody problem"
• The gun industry publicly defends rights while quietly engaging in data exploitation
• Senator Richard Blumenthal supports investigation into these practices
If you're a privacy professional or legal expert with insights on this issue, we'd love to have you on the show to discuss this further and answer some of the questions we've raised today.
All righty then. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Privacy, please. Cameron Ivey, here with Gabe Gumbs. Gabe, how are you doing, man? I am all right, I am all right. Is that the just a legit version of living the dream? But you're not hiding it.
Speaker 2:That's the psychotic laugh right before breakdown. That's what that is. I love it that big joker grin. Let's put a smile on that face, shall we?
Speaker 1:Let's put a smile on that face. Yeah, so lots of things happening in the world of security and privacy, as always, which is why we were able to talk every week. It's been busy. It's been busy, it has. There's one story that I wanted to dig into that was interesting. It's ProPublica. Now, if anybody's not too familiar with the story basically, gun owners group demands federal investigation into firearms industry data sharing. So gun owners for safety, propublica investigation has urged federal agencies to investigate the National Shooting Sports Foundation for secretly sharing gun buyers' personal data for political purposes. The group labeled the NSSF's actions are underhanded and emphasizing that gun owners' privacy transcends political lines. I thought the funniest thing obviously we'll just throw it out there on top of it was that they shared part of some of the sensitive data was underwear sizes. I mean, that's just great.
Speaker 2:I so many questions Like why do you need to share your underwear size when buying a gun? You know that?
Speaker 1:that is the first thing that should come to mind, like, all right, so you want to Smith and Weston, and what's a? What's your boxer size?
Speaker 2:Oh, maybe. Maybe it's because they're buying like gun holsters or, like you know, like the around the waist ones, and maybe it's like waist size?
Speaker 2:Like I don't know. Like why is your underwear size included in your gun purchasing history? Like I have a lot of questions and they start there. They start there. This is the problem with privacy, right, like everyone, anyone who ever makes the claim that like, well, I don't have anything to hide. It's not whether you have anything to hide. It's like do you, do you really want them to know what size tiny white is your rocket gabe?
Speaker 1:have you not bought a gun before?
Speaker 2:I mean, let's just say that if I let's, just say, if I did I'm a man who greatly values my privacy and probably would not do so in any way that that would necessarily leave a paper trail.
Speaker 1:That's fair. Now I can be a betting man and say I can look at most people and guess their underwear size. That's true. It's true, Just going off of my own size and what I wear.
Speaker 2:But can you do that with your eyes closed for everyone that has bought a gun in America? No, you can't, but this data can, and so look the use of personal gun purchase data for political targeting. It exposes a serious breach of consumer privacy, as does telling about people's draw sizes. But you know, the irony, of course, is it suggests that even a rights-driven industry, right like the entire gun industry, is predicated upon rights and personal rights and privacy rights even for that matter, and they're not immune at all to exploiting user data for hidden agendas. Right Like the gun industry publicly positions itself as a defender of individual rights and privacy, but, like quietly, it's obviously engaging in practices that, if anything, they mirror the very government institutions that they normally criticize.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the good news is is the Senator Richard Blumenthal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Rich Blumenthal. He supports the investigation, so maybe he doesn't want people To know what size Underwear he has.
Speaker 2:He's definitely An extra small.
Speaker 1:Okay, but we have good news for the listeners, though we're actually developing a tool that will remove your underwear size from purchasing.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's just called going commando. You already know you like weapons. Going commando is right up your alley.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm going to be honest. I had a friend and I think he still wears this. I'm not going to name any names, but he wears jeans without underwear and I'm like you're insane.
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong with that? There's really only one hard and fast rule you never go commando in another man's fatigues.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's the only hard and fast rule. That's a great rule too, and guys know that Never go commando in someone else's jeans or anything. Yeah, or anything, yeah, don't do it. So I got some questions for you and maybe we can bring out some thoughts here. Let's see how do you think this issue, this particular issue, kind of impacts the broader conversation about privacy and data protections when it comes to all industries.
Speaker 2:My hope is that it is seen as an actual problem across the political divide. Privacy doesn't usually like in my experience I haven't seen it be a very you know big political football but it shows up. It shows up in politics. The fact that it is California that enacted, you know, the nation's first and most significant privacy regulation at scale equally says something. But privacy is an everybody problem. Privacy is an everybody problem and over the years there's been different privacy debates, which again right back to the gun industry being the very defender of private and individual rights. It is the very gun industry that has supported lesser government involvement in private matters and whatnot. But my hope is that it is seen as an everybody problem. This sucks. When you buy anything, it doesn't matter what that thing is. You buy a thing legally, you buy a weapon. One shouldn't have that data used, certainly to manipulate you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if you know somebody's underwear size and not their favorite drink, that's a problem.
Speaker 2:You're skipping some steps. You're skipping some steps. There's a consent problem. There is a consent problem.
Speaker 1:There's a consent. The other red flag was that the NSSF collaborated with Cambridge Analytica to enhance voter data.
Speaker 2:That's a dirty name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody knows that name.
Speaker 2:That's a dirty name yeah.
Speaker 1:Everybody knows that name. That's a dirty name, so okay. So let's leave. I know we only. This is a short episode. We wanted to just kind of dig into this a little bit further, but I want to challenge some of our listeners that are privacy professionals, privacy lawyers, whatever. What are your thoughts on this? What are, what are some of the potential outcomes with the investigation? What should we be looking for? What questions should we be asking? If somebody wants to come on and talk a little bit more about this and some of the other incidents that are going around, I mean, we'd love to have you on and love to get your input on this. Yeah for sure, gabe. You got anything else before?
Speaker 2:No, no, this is a great topic. We'd love to invite some debate, some conversation, some healthy interactions online, and next week we'll get back to some of these topics.
Speaker 1:Sounds good. We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for coming or tuning in, I don't know. We'll see you next week, yeah, later.
