Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

upguard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 351 posts

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#31

Post by protomyth »

arianvanp wrote: post #23

So you think it is okay to model ethnicity and religion of 200 milion citizens? This is how my country got all their jews killed in WWII [0]. The mere thought of compiling such information here would lead to some hefty jail time these days. I really cannot believe you can even defend such a thing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#Netherlands

For a US example look at NAACP v. Alabama (1958). If you are on the side of revealing this information, you are on the same side as some pretty unpleasant folks.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#32

Post by pdog »

This raises so many questions...

Why is U.S. voter registration made public at the individual name/address level?

Why do the states publish their voter registrations in the first place?

Why should private campaign operations (or anyone else) have access to this data?

Shouldn't voters' privacy be protected by the states?

Is there a privacy policy you can review when you register to vote?

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#33

Post by wildmusings »

arianvanp wrote: post #23

So you think it is okay to model ethnicity and religion of 200 milion citizens? This is how my country got all their jews killed in WWII [0]. The mere thought of compiling such information here would lead to some hefty jail time these days. I really cannot believe you can even defend such a thing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#Netherlands

In the United States, the First Amendment protects your right to compile publicly available data in any way you see fit. I have experience working on a political campaign and they ALL have databases such as this.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#34

Post by simias »

pyre wrote: post #30
School-Cotton wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is spam.

Totally. I entered an address I don't care about, and it just kept asking me for what is essentially a marketing profile: - Is this a personal email address? - Please enter 10 more email addresses that you use (i.e. are associated with this email address) so that we can "narrow down the search results." Really. How is whether or not this is a personal email address meaningful in searching hacked data for the email ad…

Yeah, same experience, same results, although at least it doesn't appear to make up fake results to force you to register (I used a completely fabricated address and it said it didn't find any match before it even asked me to register).

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#35

Post by AndrewKemendo »

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…

It's an interesting question, because there is a comparable in the intelligence community called aggregation.

Effectively two pieces of information when separate, might not be classified, but if they are linked with a third or combined they become classified. Add more and it changes the classification further.

I wonder if there should be something similar for data aggregation companies. Like what we see with HIPAA.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#36

Post by Gargoyle »

protomyth wrote: post #31
arianvanp wrote: post #23

So you think it is okay to model ethnicity and religion of 200 milion citizens? This is how my country got all their jews killed in WWII [0]. The mere thought of compiling such information here would lead to some hefty jail time these days. I really cannot believe you can even defend such a thing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#Netherlands

For a US example look at NAACP v. Alabama (1958). If you are on the side of revealing this information, you are on the same side as some pretty unpleasant folks.

You're also on the side of every political campaign in America. Collecting and/or modeling this information is standard practice in the industry.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#38

Post by VonGuard »

pdog wrote: post #32

This raises so many questions... Why is U.S. voter registration made public at the individual name/address level? Why do the states publish their voter registrations in the first place? Why should private campaign operations (or anyone else) have access to this data? Shouldn't voters' privacy be protected by the states? Is there a privacy policy you can review when you register to vote?

So that the two parties who voted for this to be the case can have unfettered access to their potential voters, go to their houses, send them things, and know for sure they're only hitting up people in their party, so as not to mobilize the other side.

Nothing that would harm the 2-party system ever changes in the US, and nothing ever will.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#39

Post by AndrewKemendo »

arianvanp wrote: post #23

So you think it is okay to model ethnicity and religion of 200 milion citizens? This is how my country got all their jews killed in WWII [0]. The mere thought of compiling such information here would lead to some hefty jail time these days. I really cannot believe you can even defend such a thing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_registration#Netherlands

I almost made this same comment however it's not comparable because these were private firms compiling the data for a private political committee. This is NOT the government collecting this data.

Rest assured the government has much better data on everyone already.

Post reply on HN