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Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

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Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#51

Post by unityByFreedom »

DannyBee wrote: post #24

Speaking as a guy with a lot of experience with voter data ( I built the first "where do I vote" apps for Google and helped found the voting information project): This is actually almost entirely public data. Yes, including addresses and phone numbers and political affiliation. There are some states that is not public as part of the voter file, but you can still get it other ways publicly. For example: USPS, etc. Som…

> This is actually almost entirely public data

Birthday is an included item. That's definitely private as it is often used to confirm identity.

"almost public" is meaningless. One data item, like credit card number, or birthday, can make this a dangerous leak.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#52

Post by 1024core »

protomyth wrote: post #44
Gargoyle wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, for internal use is fine and dandy, but revealing it to the world is scummy, a violation of privacy, and can lead to retribution.

That's like saying "it's OK to have racist thoughts, just don't say them out aloud". Whether it's revealed or not is secondary to the act of compiling itself.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#54

Post by wyldfire »

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

Whoa! We got to Godwin super fast this time.

Please re-read what I wrote and consider that I might have the best intentions to explore a discussion with HN. Note also that I discussed the nature of securing the data and not its compilation.

Note that IMO several European countries forfeit some freedoms that I consider valuable and critical for democracy. IMO it is your right to observe the world as it is and note what you observe. Yes, I understand that this right conflicts with privacy and find it an extremely unfortunate consequence, especially given the emerging power of AI. However I think that it's also possible find people culpable for evil intent of a compilation, though difficult to prove.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#55

Post by dsfyu404ed »

protomyth wrote: post #46
stdgy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely still covered by the aforementioned 'on the side of some pretty unpleasant folks.' ;)

Well, the KKK and Jim Crow supporters were a bit farther up the ladder of 'unpleasant'. 'Unpleasant' being used in the same meaning and tone as a southern lady saying "aren't you special".

In their day they were only mildly unpleasant. Furthermore, those groups they believed they were acting to promote policy that believed was in the best interest of the nation, regardless of how we see them in hindsight.

Imagine if there existed similar databases then. Would you hire someone if you knew they were firmly pro-segregation at age 20-something in 1950-something?

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#56

Post by strictnein »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #47

As long as the CEO of an company (RNC) that gives data to an outsourcer (Deep Root Analytics) is not going to jail to give data to an unqualified company, nothing will change. If the CEO goes to jail, things will change very rapidly (CEO will manage his CMO much tighter who will first want to see an security audit not older than 6 months). At least CEOs I have reported to as CTO were very sensitive for implemention i…

What law did they break, exactly? These aren't medical or financial records.

A careless programmer makes a bad choice and the CEO has to go to jail? Come on.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#57

Post by DannyBee »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #19
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 VoterS…

As I said in the other thread, this is all public data from various sources (except the modeling). It will be fully filled out. It's very common for political orgs to have the entire voter file for the US (or be able to query it using SQL)

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#58

Post by thatcat »

wildmusings wrote: post #33
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.

What is the publically available source to view voting history ? I thought that was protected information.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#60

Post by enzanki_ars »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #49
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 VoterS…

Plus the supposedly "startlingly accurate" preference and views modeling that is linked to all personal details and publically accessible. While someone could always deny it being correct it again raises questions about responsibility in data collection. > RNC_RegID, State, 2012ObamaVoter_DRA_12_16, 2012RomneyVoter_DRA_12_16, 2016ClintonVoter_DRA_12_16, 2016TrumpVoter_DRA_12_16, AmericaFirstForeignPolicy_agree_DRA_12…

Formatted:

    RNC_RegID
    
    State
    
    2012ObamaVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    2012RomneyVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    2016ClintonVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    2016TrumpVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    AmericaFirstForeignPolicy_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    AmericaFirstForeignPolicy_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    AutoCompaniesShipJobsOverseas_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    AutoCompaniesShipJobsOverseas_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_AmericanMakers_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_DailyLives_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_Egalitarians_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_EnviroConscious_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_OpportunitySeekers_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_STEMSupporters_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_SupplyChainers_DRA_12_16
    
    CorpReputs_Unifers_DRA_12_16
    
    DemLeadersStandUpToTrump_DRA_12_16
    
    DemLeadersWorkWithTrump_DRA_12_16
    
    DParty_DRA_12_16
    
    FinancialServicesHarmful_agree_DRA_12_16 
    
    FinancialServicesHarmful_disagree_DRA_12_16 
    
    FinServicesCompany_Dreamers_DRA_12_16 
    
    FinServicesCompany_RiskMitigators_DRA_12_16 
    
    FossilFuelsImportantForUSEnergySecurity_DRA_12_16 
    
    FossilFuelsNeedToMoveAwayFrom_DRA_12_16
    
    InvestInfrastructure_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    InvestInfrastructure_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    LowerTaxes_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    LowerTaxes_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    NonReluctantDJTVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    NonReluctantHRCVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    PharmaCompsDoGreatDamage_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    PharmaCompsDoGreatDamage_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    ReformGovtRegulations_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    ReformGovtRegulations_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    ReluctantDJT_Above.5_DRA_12_16
    
    ReluctantHRCVoter_DRA_12_16
    
    RepealObamacare_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    RepealObamacare_disagree_DRA_12_16 
    
    RParty_DRA_12_16
    
    StopIllegalImmigration_agree_DRA_12_16
    
    StopIllegalImmigration_disagree_DRA_12_16
    
    TrumpStandUpToDems_DRA_12_16
    
    TrumpWorkWithDems_DRA_12_16
    
    USAFinancialSituation_Optimistic_DRA_12_16
    
    USAFinancialSituation_Pessimistic_DRA_12
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