Readit NewsTaking a photograph of a car with its license plate is legal. As is selling a photo you've taken, whether it has a license plate or not.
Therefore taking millions of photos in public of cars, and turning their license plate numbers into a database is legal, as is selling that information. It's all data gained in public.
Obviously it's now scary that you're being tracked. But what is the solution? We certainly don't want to outlaw taking photos in public. Is it the mass aggregation of already-public data that should be made illegal? What adverse consequences might that have, e.g. journalists compiling public data to prove governmental corruption?
States can ban this behavior as well.
Furthermore, legislators can create a right to privacy in the law, letting people sue companies who collect this data. And to top it off, states and the federal government can make corporate officers personally liable for collecting this information without consent.
With Lina Khan biding time in NYC, I do believe we are going to see this change very soon. I don't think there will be any public sympathy for tech companies in the next political cycle.
I don't think the hurdle is so high for companies to sell Linux machines that look like Windows XP and users to just stomach changing OSs.
I think Valve smells blood in the water and that is why they are releasing their new Steam Machine (linux based).
I don't see why I want to loop in a 3rd party to connect back to my house.
Congrats clueless CEO… you’re now selling a worse product at lower margins. Success!
OK good point. But then why hasn't Hyundai US management made sure to get their imported workers legal visas or that the people they hired had their visas up to date? Surely when you're running a business visa and immigration laws is another one of the things on your checklist, similar to having to follow OHSA laws, fire safety, fire drills, first aid, diversity and sensitivity training, etc and all the other stuff companies operating in the US have to follow.
Also be aware, my original comment was target that person's comment specifically, not the issues from the article.
The ASMR deportation videos from the Homeland Security department and the fetish this maga movement seems to have in brutalizing foreigners coming to the US would indicate to me that the paperwork is not the problem.
Maybe that is the underlying point. Why does the US government, this administration, and its supporters have a fetish for chaining up foreigners and putting them in deportation camps housed no better than cattle (alligator alcatraz?)? Do they not consider the consequences of this?
US sales pitch: "Please build factories here, but I reserve the right at my own discretion with no warning to parade your employees in chains and stuff them into poorly maintained detention centers. Then to kick them out of the country and blame you.".
Because of the poor reporting, it's not possible to say for sure what happened, but it sounds like Hyundai/LG/subcontractors brought in hundreds of South Koreans on B visas and had them engaging in productive work. That's not what B visas are for. B visas are for meetings, sales, and maybe some light training/setup/integration. When the CEO talks about needing specialized, skilled workers, that's a strong suggestion these workers should have been on L visas.
Times reporting confirmed a few of the workers were on B visas: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/business/economy/hyundai-...
Unfortunately the same article doesn't even mention the L visa, and cites an immigration lawyer who complains about the difficulty of getting H-1B visas. But L visas are not capped like H-1Bs. In India we approved thousands of L visas specifically for skilled workers to assist with bringing plants/equipment online.
In short, the B visa is not a work visa. Most countries worldwide are quite restrictive about the conditions surrounding work visas, and people who violate the conditions of their visa shouldn't be surprised when there are consequences. Having a valid visa but violating its conditions means you are violating immigration law.
Corporate immigration departments can and do cut corners and may have thought they would save money and time by sending foreign workers on B visas (which they might have already had) or on the visa waiver program. L visa holders don't even have to get paid US-level wages, so one take on the visa type is that it is already a way for companies to undercut US labor.
And this after the admin starts a tariff war against treaty allies for not building factories in the US? Very schizo.
This whole situation is complete insanity and is completely the fault of this administration and the maga movement.
This clarified everything for me. The US government has entered into several large cloud provider contracts and as part of the contracts, the clouds have been evaluated and approved for use. Not for every use nor for every kind of data, but government security folks go over everything with a fine toothed comb, demand additional controls, and so forth.
AWS used to have at least two “private” clouds (existence of which was not secret) for the US government as of 2021; probably there are more now.
My impression is that this guy is a typical bureaucrat who has power based on his ability to gatekeep access to information; he’s upset someone went around him. His concerns might have some validity but they aren’t nearly so shocking as the story is being made out to be. Likely DOGE copied the data BECAUSE of this guy getting in the way.
The guy’s hysterical exaggeration makes me think he is part of the “resistance” and just wanted to be a wrench in the works for the Trump administration.
Trump is demonstrating on a near weekly basis (in lawsuit after lawsuit) that the president IS the executive branch, that the bureaucracy exists solely to help the president carry out his duties, and that bureaucrats who don’t follow instructions don’t belong in government.
The Supreme Court is backing him nearly 100% because he’s right and they are protecting the the presidency; this is not due to loving or even wanting to support Trump; several of the right-wing justices like ACB and Roberts hate him.
So IMO this guy is making a mountain out of a molehill and any “hostile work environment” is largely of his own creation.
That said, I admit I could be wrong, and will wait for the inevitable investigations and lawsuits.”, but I expect it to fizzle because I don’t think there is any “there” there.
The two million employees including 1M+ military members are not private employees of the president. Everyone's job is to execute the will of CONGRESS.
The consequences of messing up custody of information on 330M+ American citizen is severe enough to require Congressional oversight and approval of big changes.
Changing how the data is managed warrants that.
I personally have a lot of questions for how this new arrangement was made. Was it made in secret from Congress? Who is overseeing the transfer of data and access controls? Who is doing the auditing? These questions should have been answered in front on Congress. When is DOGE going to testify in front of Congress under oath as to what they were doing?
Btw, wasn't that big balls guy from DOGE in the news recently for some borderline criminally negligent treatment of sensitive data on Americans?
I don't see how Zuckerberg, Bezos, or anyone in the tech industry is going to come out of this unscathed with this kind of attitude prevalent in the tech industry. Maybe they think either there will be no consequences or they can make enough money off of the US market alone.