Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak • Hacker News Board

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#11

Post by matthewbauer » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:21 PM UTC

317070 wrote: post #5

rootsudo wrote: post #2

In other news, already known information. Every USA states has clear laws on releasing whose registered with which party, past affiliation and address. Clickbait.

From the article: > Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone numbers, the records include advanced sentiment analyses used by political groups to predict where individual voters fall on hot-button issues such as gun ownership, stem cell research, and the right to abortion, as well as suspected religious affiliation and ethnicity. In some Western countries, the mere existence of such a database would be illega…

France is the only country I'm aware of where that's the case.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#12

Post by wyldfire » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:21 PM UTC

I hate to be in the position of defending a leak such as this. But if what they've done is "merely" compiling data that was available from our public profiles, are they obligated to secure that compilation? I'm asking -- I don't know for sure how the data was gathered, it just sounds like it was from scraping public records + public web sites.

Also, can someone ask Troy Hunt whether he has or can get access to this data so he can let us all know if we're on it? (But will it even matter if they don't have an email address field?)

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#13

Post by kjhughes » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:22 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #9

kjhughes wrote: post #8

Being discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14586920

Great to merge the discussion but IMO the Upguard article is original/superior details.

Agreed -- the Upguard article is a better topic link for this.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#14

Post by HCyber » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:28 PM UTC

You can see if you have been breached in other similar breaches and leaks at https://HEROIC.com

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#15

Post by HCyber » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:30 PM UTC

You can check if you have been breached in other similar breaches and leaks at https://HEROIC.com

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#16

Post by wang_li » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:30 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #12

I hate to be in the position of defending a leak such as this. But if what they've done is "merely" compiling data that was available from our public profiles, are they obligated to secure that compilation? I'm asking -- I don't know for sure how the data was gathered, it just sounds like it was from scraping public records + public web sites. Also, can someone ask Troy Hunt whether he has or can get access to this d…

Voter registration information is public. It doesn't seem like any of the information "leaked" is actually private.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#17

Post by mattnewton » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:30 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #12

I hate to be in the position of defending a leak such as this. But if what they've done is "merely" compiling data that was available from our public profiles, are they obligated to secure that compilation? I'm asking -- I don't know for sure how the data was gathered, it just sounds like it was from scraping public records + public web sites. Also, can someone ask Troy Hunt whether he has or can get access to this d…

I missed where it was all public; couldn't you share information with your political party you wouldn't want shared with others? And wouldn't the accumulation of all that data be valuable?

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#18

Post by yahelc » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:31 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #12

I hate to be in the position of defending a leak such as this. But if what they've done is "merely" compiling data that was available from our public profiles, are they obligated to secure that compilation? I'm asking -- I don't know for sure how the data was gathered, it just sounds like it was from scraping public records + public web sites. Also, can someone ask Troy Hunt whether he has or can get access to this d…

Voter files being public data depends on which state you're talking about -- you're looking at ~50 different sets of laws and regulations. Some states restrict access to only political parties using it for political uses and prohibit distribution to non-parties/candidates. Some states (Florida, for example) will let anyone just apply to get it.

To your latter question, some states, like California, do include email addresses on their voter file, but the coverage tends to be poor.

You can probably assume that, if you're a registered voter in the United States, you're on this dataset, as is your age, gender, party affiliation if applicable, and race/ethnicity info if your state collects that, as well as modeled information projecting things like party support, race, age, and likelihood to turnout.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#19

Post by LeifCarrotson » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:35 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #7

Wow, not good: "State", "Juriscode", "Jurisname", "CountyFIPS", "MCD", "CNTY", "Town", "Ward", "Precinct", "Ballotbox", "PrecinctName", "NamePrefix", "FirstName", "MiddleName", "LastName", "NameSuffix", "Sex", "BirthYear", "BirthMonth", "BirthDay", "OfficialParty", "StateCalcParty", "RNCCalcParty", "StateVoterID", "JurisdictionVoterID", "LastActiveDate", "RegistrationDate", "VoterStatus", "SelfReportedDemographic", "…

That does not even nearly fit on one line, so I broke it up. Yeah, it looks pretty bad. Here's hoping it's only sparsely filled out.

State

Juriscode

Jurisname

CountyFIPS

MCD

CNTY

Town

Ward

Precinct

Ballotbox

PrecinctName

NamePrefix

FirstName

MiddleName

LastName

NameSuffix

Sex

BirthYear

BirthMonth

BirthDay

OfficialParty

StateCalcParty

RNCCalcParty

StateVoterID

JurisdictionVoterID

LastActiveDate

RegistrationDate

VoterStatus

SelfReportedDemographic

ModeledEthnicity

ModeledReligion

ModeledEthnicGroup

RegistrationAddr1

RegistrationAddr2

RegHouseNum

RegHouseSfx

RegStPrefix

RegStName

RegStType

RegstPost

RegUnitType

RegUnitNumber

RegCity

RegSta

RegZip5

RegZip4

RegLatitude

RegLongitude

RegGeocodeLevel

ChangeOfAddress

COADate

COAType

MailingAddr1

MailingAddr2

MailHouseNum

MailHouseSfx

MailStPrefix

MailStName

MailStType

MailStPost

MailUnitType

MailUnitNumber

MailCity

MailSta

MailZip5

MailZip4

MailSortCodeRoute

MailDeliveryPt

MailDeliveryPtChkDigit

MailLineOfTravel

MailLineOfTravelOrder

MailDPVStatus

MADR_LastCleanse

MADR_LastCOA

AreaCode

TelephoneNUm

TelSourceCode

TelMatchLevel

TelReliability

FTC_DoNotCall

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#20

Post by ryanworl » Mon, Jun 19, 2017, 3:36 PM UTC

mattnewton wrote: post #17

wyldfire wrote: post #12

I hate to be in the position of defending a leak such as this. But if what they've done is "merely" compiling data that was available from our public profiles, are they obligated to secure that compilation? I'm asking -- I don't know for sure how the data was gathered, it just sounds like it was from scraping public records + public web sites. Also, can someone ask Troy Hunt whether he has or can get access to this d…

I missed where it was all public; couldn't you share information with your political party you wouldn't want shared with others? And wouldn't the accumulation of all that data be valuable?

Many states have very loose control over their voter database. The control is mostly exerted through the force of the law prohibiting certain uses of the data. For example, I can order the voter database for the state of New York and receive it on a CD in a few weeks. Other states will simply email you a link to a big bundle of CSV files.

There is other information besides what is on the voter database in this disclosure, it appears, but the voter data itself is mostly not a secret and can be trivially accessed by any citizen. They just have to promise not to break the law around what they do with it.