Kim Komando and data mining

[johnharris]

I was driving to Kentucky on Saturday, Feb 21, and listening to the radio. A show was on called the Kim Komando show http://www.komando.com that talks about digital technology. Good information but you have to listen to get it. Anyhow, as I am listening I hear a lead in to a show segment where she says something similar to "if you are a handgun permit holder would you want to see a website that overlays something like Google Earth or any of the other internet based mapping software with a database that has all of the home addresses of the handgun permit holders?" Yes, it was a story from Tennessee again questioning the actions of the Commercial Appeal.

She made some great points about the risks of mining data from state agencies not just on handgun permit holders but all kinds of other databases and the risks that arise when that address information is overlaid into a product like Google Earth or perhaps even a hand held GPS to find those street addresses.

Its another reason to demand that our legislators close the public access to this information. Sadly, there are some positives to allowing the public to access these databases but abuses by narrow minded idiots like the Commercial Appeal and other Tennessee newspapers - including Nashville's Tennessean - which have repeatedly obtained the database for no other purpose than to make the identities of permit holders very easily accessible.