S6, E242 - The Gun Industry Is Tracking More Than Just Your Purchases

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ProPublica's investigation reveals the National Shooting Sports Foundation has been secretly sharing gun buyers' personal information, including underwear sizes, for political purposes. This privacy breach raises serious concerns about data exploitation even in industries that publicly position themselves as defenders of individual rights.

• Gun owners group demands federal investigation into firearms industry data sharing
• Personal data shared included underwear sizes and was allegedly used for political targeting
• NSSF collaborated with Cambridge Analytica to enhance voter data
• Privacy concerns should transcend political divides - "Privacy is an everybody problem"
• The gun industry publicly defends rights while quietly engaging in data exploitation
• Senator Richard Blumenthal supports investigation into these practices

If you're a privacy professional or legal expert with insights on this issue, we'd love to have you on the show to discuss this further and answer some of the questions we've raised today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All righty then.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcomeback to Privacy, please.
Cameron Ivey, here with GabeGumbs.
Gabe, how are you doing, man?
I am all right, I am all right.
Is that the just a legitversion of living the dream?
But you're not hiding it.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's the psychotic laugh right before breakdown.
That's what that is.
I love it that big joker grin.
Let's put a smile on that face,shall we?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Let's put a smile on that face.
Yeah, so lots of thingshappening in the world of
security and privacy, as always,which is why we were able to
talk every week.
It's been busy.
It's been busy, it has.
There's one story that I wantedto dig into that was
interesting.
It's ProPublica.
Now, if anybody's not toofamiliar with the story

(00:50):
basically, gun owners groupdemands federal investigation
into firearms industry datasharing.
So gun owners for safety,propublica investigation has
urged federal agencies toinvestigate the National
Shooting Sports Foundation forsecretly sharing gun buyers'
personal data for politicalpurposes.
The group labeled the NSSF'sactions are underhanded and

(01:13):
emphasizing that gun owners'privacy transcends political
lines.
I thought the funniest thingobviously we'll just throw it
out there on top of it was thatthey shared part of some of the
sensitive data was underwearsizes.
I mean, that's just great.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I so many questions Like why do you need to share
your underwear size when buyinga gun?
You know that?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
that is the first thing that should come to mind,
like, all right, so you want toSmith and Weston, and what's a?
What's your boxer size?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Oh, maybe.
Maybe it's because they'rebuying like gun holsters or,
like you know, like the aroundthe waist ones, and maybe it's
like waist size?
Like I don't know.
Like why is your underwear sizeincluded in your gun purchasing
history?
Like I have a lot of questionsand they start there.

(02:04):
They start there.
This is the problem withprivacy, right, like everyone,
anyone who ever makes the claimthat like, well, I don't have
anything to hide.
It's not whether you haveanything to hide.
It's like do you, do you reallywant them to know what size
tiny white is your rocket gabe?

Speaker 1 (02:18):
have you not bought a gun before?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, let's just say that if I let's, just say,
if I did I'm a man who greatlyvalues my privacy and probably
would not do so in any way thatthat would necessarily leave a
paper trail.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's fair.
Now I can be a betting man andsay I can look at most people
and guess their underwear size.
That's true.
It's true, Just going off of myown size and what I wear.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
But can you do that with your eyes closed for
everyone that has bought a gunin America?
No, you can't, but this datacan, and so look the use of
personal gun purchase data forpolitical targeting.
It exposes a serious breach ofconsumer privacy, as does
telling about people's drawsizes.
But you know, the irony, ofcourse, is it suggests that even

(03:06):
a rights-driven industry, rightlike the entire gun industry,
is predicated upon rights andpersonal rights and privacy
rights even for that matter, andthey're not immune at all to
exploiting user data for hiddenagendas.
Right Like the gun industrypublicly positions itself as a
defender of individual rightsand privacy, but, like quietly,

(03:27):
it's obviously engaging inpractices that, if anything,
they mirror the very governmentinstitutions that they normally
criticize.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, I mean the good news is is the Senator Richard
Blumenthal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, RichBlumenthal.
He supports the investigation,so maybe he doesn't want people
To know what size Underwear hehas.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
He's definitely An extra small.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Okay, but we have good news for the listeners,
though we're actually developinga tool that will remove your
underwear size from purchasing.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yes, it's just called going commando.
You already know you likeweapons.
Going commando is right up youralley.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
You know, I'm going to be honest.
I had a friend and I think hestill wears this.
I'm not going to name any names, but he wears jeans without
underwear and I'm like you'reinsane.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
There's nothing wrong with that?
There's really only one hardand fast rule you never go
commando in another man'sfatigues.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's true, that's the only hard and fast rule.
That's a great rule too, andguys know that Never go commando
in someone else's jeans oranything.
Yeah, or anything, yeah, don'tdo it.
So I got some questions for youand maybe we can bring out some
thoughts here.
Let's see how do you think thisissue, this particular issue,

(04:46):
kind of impacts the broaderconversation about privacy and
data protections when it comesto all industries.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
My hope is that it is seen as an actual problem
across the political divide.
Privacy doesn't usually like inmy experience I haven't seen it
be a very you know bigpolitical football but it shows
up.
It shows up in politics.
The fact that it is Californiathat enacted, you know, the

(05:14):
nation's first and mostsignificant privacy regulation
at scale equally says something.
But privacy is an everybodyproblem.
Privacy is an everybody problemand over the years there's been
different privacy debates,which again right back to the
gun industry being the verydefender of private and
individual rights.
It is the very gun industrythat has supported lesser

(05:35):
government involvement inprivate matters and whatnot.
But my hope is that it is seenas an everybody problem.
This sucks.
When you buy anything, itdoesn't matter what that thing
is.
You buy a thing legally, youbuy a weapon.
One shouldn't have that dataused, certainly to manipulate
you.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, I mean, if you know somebody's underwear size
and not their favorite drink,that's a problem.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
You're skipping some steps.
You're skipping some steps.
There's a consent problem.
There is a consent problem.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
There's a consent.
The other red flag was that theNSSF collaborated with
Cambridge Analytica to enhancevoter data.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
That's a dirty name.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, everybody knows that name.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
That's a dirty name yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Everybody knows that name.
That's a dirty name, so okay.
So let's leave.
I know we only.
This is a short episode.
We wanted to just kind of diginto this a little bit further,
but I want to challenge some ofour listeners that are privacy
professionals, privacy lawyers,whatever.
What are your thoughts on this?
What are, what are some of thepotential outcomes with the
investigation?
What should we be looking for?
What questions should we beasking?

(06:38):
If somebody wants to come onand talk a little bit more about
this and some of the otherincidents that are going around,
I mean, we'd love to have youon and love to get your input on
this.
Yeah for sure, gabe.
You got anything else before?

Speaker 2 (06:54):
No, no, this is a great topic.
We'd love to invite some debate, some conversation, some
healthy interactions online, andnext week we'll get back to
some of these topics.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Sounds good.
We'll see you guys next week.
Thanks for coming or tuning in,I don't know.
We'll see you next week, yeah,later.