Ethin Probst 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (340)

• On the post: Former FCC Officials Push To Kill Dated ‘News Distortion’ Rule Trump Abused To Bully CBS And ABC Into Feckless Compliance

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 04:02pm

  I would like to hope that we will have a much more ruthless democratic administration one of these days. Hopefully one that uses all these weapons Trump has created for himself against the Republican party. If there's one thing these assholes need to learn, it's that when you implement precedent to ignore the law, the other party can do it too.

• On the post: Former FCC Officials Push To Kill Dated ‘News Distortion’ Rule Trump Abused To Bully CBS And ABC Into Feckless Compliance

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 10:52am

  I agree. I feel like the only way is to pass laws (and maybe even constitutional amendments) which severely lock down the federal government. A lot. I don't really know of any other way to do it, but I'm also not a lawyer. Especially since I don't see how else we could neuter that one political party without doing very very drastic things.

• On the post: Former FCC Officials Push To Kill Dated ‘News Distortion’ Rule Trump Abused To Bully CBS And ABC Into Feckless Compliance

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 08:55am

  Am I the only one who thinks that after this administration is finally removed (either because it left willingly or because we had to... Convince it to leave), we'll either be removing or rewriting a bunch of rules/regs/laws? Though I have no idea how to balance discretion with legal specificity, sadly.

• On the post: Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 08:49am

  Completely agree. One of the points a lot of my more center/right-leaning family members like to bring up is that the government's internal systems should talk to each other. Which I would agree to, if it was being done properly/legally. And DOGE weren't the ones doing it. Though the fact that USCIS and SSA don't at least transmit basic information like this is just weird to me. They wouldn't even need to share databases, just basic data about a person. That would at least open up the possibility of automatic SSN issuance...

• On the post: Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2025 @ 08:10am

  Yeah, this is definitively true, if my research is true and I haven't found one of those AI slop websites. (I literally found one yesterday, for the first time, on Kagi, so...) Supposedly, USCIS did something to N-400 in 2024 that allowed you to "request" that your citizenship data with the SSA be automatically updated. But, of course, then Trump took office, and such was "suspended" / "temporarily paused". Because of course it was.

• On the post: Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2025 @ 08:06am

  Is this actually true? Idk if it is, haven't ever heard of this... But if this is true then yes, there are probably hundreds of thousands to millions who have missed this step. How much you wanna bet that they don't even advertise it very well?

• On the post: Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2025 @ 08:03am

  And even if we consider a theoretical reality where they only use that slice of information, that information alone is enough to completely ruin your life and do quite a lot of damage.

• On the post: Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2025 @ 06:36am

  ... alleging that its expansion of SAVE and other data consolidation efforts violate the Privacy Act, a federal law that prohibits public agencies from misusing private information.

  SCOTUS will have something to say about that, I'm sure...

• On the post: Nut Huggers Apparel Plans To Battle Back Against Bullshit Buc-ee’s Bullying

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2025 @ 06:34am

  I feel like it's time for some kind of anti-SLAPP law but for trademarks and patents. I don't really see any way for us to "fix" the laws/system though -- lawyers I imagine will always do bullshit like this.

• On the post: Judge Orders OpenAI To Give Lawyers 20 Million Private Chats, Thinks ‘Anonymization’ Can Keep Them Private

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2025 @ 03:56am

  Then they either shouldn't store the chats at all or should store them on the users device. This is literally a solved problem by now. There is no way of anonymizing the data (or de-identifying it or anything else) given it's not structured data and identifying what is "sensitive" and not is practically impossible. But if OAI didn't want to suffer this, maybe they should've actually thought about cybersecurity and privacy instead of just creating something and ignoring it until it was impossible to ignore anymore. This is entirely OAI's fault.

• On the post: Judge Orders OpenAI To Give Lawyers 20 Million Private Chats, Thinks ‘Anonymization’ Can Keep Them Private

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2025 @ 12:47pm

  OpenAI offered a much more privacy-protective alternative: hand over only a targeted set of logs actually relevant to the case, rather than dumping 20 million records wholesale.

  Okay, but was this something OpenAI would have control over? If so, I can kinda understand why the news orgs were not even remotely eager to take them up on that offer. There would be nothing stopping OAI from doing some secret record clean-up to get completely off the hook, and I wouldn't put it past them to try that given all the other weird things they've tried in these cases.

• On the post: RFK Jr.’s FDA Is Now Also In Turmoil Over Corrupt Drug Regulator

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2025 @ 05:46am

  God, part of me wonders if agencies like these will ever get their credibility back after all the dust settles, or if it'll be so bad Congress will just say "fuck it" and eliminate them altogether or something. Or something else. Who knows at this point?

• On the post: Cowardice And Capitulation At Cornell

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2025 @ 03:23pm

  Is that information disclosure protection clause even legal? I thought FOIA overrode such things? But I'm no FOIA expert so...

• On the post: Conservative Judge Resigns Rather Than Stay Silent On Trump’s Constitutional Assault

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2025 @ 10:18am

  I would trust the word of a judge that's been in the DOJ for 50 years over Trumps DOGE and DOJ idiots who have little to no experience in those same departments.

• On the post: Trump Threatens BBC With Billion-Dollar Lawsuit For Correctly Pointing Out He Supported A Violent Insurrection

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2025 @ 06:39am

  Here is what I find confusing: why is the BBC even scared at all? Trump would need to bring the lawsuit in the UK, not the US. And I mean sure, he could bring it in the US and maybe get a default judgement, but then he would still need to get enforced in the UK. Which... Seems practically impossible? Cross-boarder lawsuits are a total nightmare for good reason.

• On the post: Trump Falls For Satire From Site Called ‘The Dunning Kruger Times’

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2025 @ 01:30pm

  The President of the United States, with access to the best information and advisors in the world, ...

  Your, uh, assuming that he actually does have this access. And that his staff and advisors would use such access themselves... Based on the incompetency and sheer stupidity of the people in the Oval Office, it wouldn't at all surprise me to learn that they don't even know what Dunning Kruger means. Even if they have access to both the largest encyclopedia ever created, and the largest information network ever devised. After all, all that stuff is leftist material. Right? Right?

• On the post: DHS Wants States To Hand Over Driver’s License Data For Citizenship Checks

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2025 @ 01:25pm

  This is downright weird to me. There are people in the US who are citizens who don't have drivers licenses (I am such a person). Social security numbers are a far more accurate and unique identifier, since from what I know they are never reused. Oh wait. Sorry. I'm being logical. I keep forgetting that this administration runs on vibes and not on logic or the law. Damn.

• On the post: The Simulation Is Collapsing

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2025 @ 11:05am

  I hate to be "that guy," but are we positive that this will actual continue? I really would like to believe this, but I also don't want to get overconfident in possibilities either. Things are sadly very volatile at the moment, and I may be wrong but I don't know if we should declare victory so soon. But maybe I'm just way too cynical for my own good.

• On the post: NC GOP Threatens ProPublica: Drop This Story Or We’ll Call Trump To Punish You

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2025 @ 04:08pm

  Christian? I could've sworn it said Nazian for a second...

• On the post: Student Gets Handcuffed, Searched At Gunpoint Because AI Thought A Bag Of Chips Was A Handgun

  

  Ethin Probst ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2025 @ 04:04pm

  Would you like some a-salt with that sandwich?

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