[hrabago]

I can understand NextDoor at least. It’s very neighborhood based, and they need some way to verify that you live where you say you live. If people keep seeing membership in their neighborhood has included those who don’t love in their area, the main attraction of NextDoor will disappear.

[gshulegaard]

I think you're trying to start a different conversation than what I had intended to point out by adding another anecdote to the original comment I was responding to.

Right now there is relatively little liability in gathering personal data about customers but huge benefits to doing so. I believe that there should be regulation governing punishments and protections for consumers whose data may be compromised or mishandled by corporate entities.

As it stands right now a company can leak personal data from their customers and face very few consequences. Rather, the negative consequences of customer data leaks are felt by the customer rather than the corporation that mishandles their data. This is a similar externality-effect as pollution, where a bad actor's malfeasance generates a larger negative impact than what is directly born by the bad actor itself.

We could discuss whether or not NextDoor has a legitimate use for personal identification data, but that's a tangential discussion. My point was supposed to be that any firm that gathers personal data should be assuming a greater amount of liability than they currently are.