The people involved in coding this should be ashamed of themselves
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Does the data comes from all the databases DOGE copied? This was the purpose of it? make a database of US citizens with various scores?
I don't think there's any proof, but I 100% believed that's what it was for.
I'm always baffled when I read news about unethical things that a piece of software does; I can't comprehend how software engineers, people who probably have the ability to do critical and structured thinking, program such software and feel ok with it - they can't just plead ignorance and say they're just doing their assigned tasks or sth, they actively make the decision to participate in this.
The managers, I think it makes more sense: they may be evil about coming up with these decisions, but may not have much exposure to the product to understand the consequences of how it works so they just get money and handle they contracts etc.
But the people who write the logic, they're the ones who are sitting down days at a time focusing on their task to think how to design the algorithms, from killing people, to simply tracking people online and exploit a user's behavior, data about their personal life and relationships etc
"Hmm yes if a user seems to spend much on microtransactions in games, we could maybe lure them to an online casino! Lets now work on the algorithm that recommends betting games based on their online behavior. Oh did they lose their job recently? They now have more free time to sink into our platform! We may be able to lure them with games that have small bets 🤔 I'm so good at my job I might get a raise now!"
And I guess now with vibe coding this can only get worse 😕
First of all, money. Second of all, they might agree with the purpose. Third of all, it might attract people who think it's cool to work on surveillance tech and feel like spies. Fourth, it might be compartmentalized so that you don't work specifically on the "whole app", only parts of it, that are then fit together modularly...
Fifth, money
I mean the answer is money. All the other variants are only flavors of money.
The fourth point really doesn't track because you kinda need to know enough information about the whole to develop a module.
Depends on scope and parameters.
My point is that I can ask you to develop a certain type of cog within specific tolerances that work with a certain subset of other parts in an obscure system, and you wouldn't know if you were helping build a car or a doomsday machine.
It's probably written by contractors who live in countries with far worse human rights and privacy violations.
I have sat next to them on airplanes, met the third founder 15 years ago. They really just think they're paramilitary and everything is about keeping on mission. It's not random devs taking random work without consideration for the content or implication of the work
It probably started out as a legit tool, but quickly got out of hand and used against innocent people.
The purpose is to purge democrat voters.
And at the very least intimidate them out of voting.
You are already on a list. Lemmy, reddit, piefed, etc are all already being scraped. If you're in the US, they don't need proof of a crime, just suspected association.
The technical architecture of the state doesn't fucking matter. Uniting in solidarity, linking arms in the streets, this is how we push the bastards out.
Hey fedbois, come suck my hairy nutsack. Go ahead, put that in your file.
Can it be used to find the ICE employees?
Nah, we've got our own here. https://icelist.is/ feel free to expand it if you catch sight of the Gravy Seals running around with ICE hats on.