<i>> He and his staff paid for the data of a subset of individuals with traits that a lot of Congressmen have, and who were online within five miles of the Capitol building. Though Oliver was cagey about what they found, he indicated they were able to identify several specific lawmakers and their potentially problematic search histories. But he didn’t reveal anything more than that. Instead, he indicated that his preferred solution was for lawmakers to pass laws making the release of that kind of personal info illegal.</i><p>It's likely that Oliver et al now know <i>the most intimate details</i> of the personal browsing and app-usage histories of many members of Congress, because it shouldn't be too hard for a competent data scientist to compare and match data from all desktop and mobile devices within five miles of the capitol with the known (public) schedules and locations of every member of Congress. Alas, members of Congress have only <i>themselves</i> to blame for this, because they are the only ones who can put a stop to this kind of invasive, pervasive, insidious collection of personal data. They're the only ones who could make it illegal.<p>Everything Oliver and his people have done is... <i>legal!</i>
Don't worry, Congress will pass a law that makes releasing such data of a current or former member of Congress illegal. Everyone else? Can't be bothered.
I'm not sure that i would consider what John Oliver is doing as blackmail. I'll leave that for others to opine...but damn, i really like this because my hope is that it might lead to some positive legislative work. If we fast-forward to the future, and it *DOES* pan out to some good that gets legislated, it would be somewhat sad...Sad because it would mean that using logic, reason, etc. failed to get legislation, and the only thing that works is publicity, bad press, etc. /sigh