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

141–150 of 351 posts

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#141

Post by Frondo »

794CD01 wrote: post #136
djtriptych wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careless programmers can also mishandle health/credit card/minor information. We have laws protecting all of that data in particular. I'm not sure the expansion of data privacy laws to include all PII is so farfetched.

It's a slippery slope. Analysis of writing style, patterns of use, etc can deanonymize data to the point where basically everything becomes PII.

Let's slide a little more down that slope, then.

Where personal data and privacy is concerned, I'd rather err on the side of caution, than the world we live in now.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#142

Post by ericcumbee »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #132
ericcumbee wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you like to put money on that?

Money on what? That the USG has better cumulative info on the population than a few private polling firms? Yea I'll put money on that.

That was meant for a different comment.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#143

Post by dsmithatx »

794CD01 wrote: post #136
djtriptych wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careless programmers can also mishandle health/credit card/minor information. We have laws protecting all of that data in particular. I'm not sure the expansion of data privacy laws to include all PII is so farfetched.

It's a slippery slope. Analysis of writing style, patterns of use, etc can deanonymize data to the point where basically everything becomes PII.

Treat everything as PII and we are good. The constitution has an amendment to protect our rights. That seems important. I know of no guaranteed right of corporations to infringe on our privacy and to provide access our data.

Forty years ago we didn't have this issue because there wasn't so much data for them to try to get their grubby greedy hands on. They don't need our data (ANY OF IT)!

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#144

Post by creepydata »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #51
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.

Um, no. Your birthday is certainly not private information. Births are openly published in the local paper and online. Not to mention stuff like this - http://www.wfsb.com/story/26835982/website-displaying-voters...

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#145

Post by rattray »

I don't typically don hats with this much tin foil, and I don't think this is likely, but...

The real danger of data like this, in my opinion, illegal usage for voter fraud.

Find people who are likely to vote against you and likely to have poor voter registration documents, and remove them from the polls so they can't vote.

Find people who aren't likely to vote at all and vote on their behalf. In-person, the only verification required is name & address. By mail, the only requirement is a signature, which can be obtained from receipts (I assume this is available on black hat markets).

Leaving this S3 bucket as public-read allows for deniable coordination with illegal actors. I can't imagine they did this on purpose but that could be an explanation.

I don't know if it's possible, but I hope the FBI / Mueller team is able to get access logs.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#146

Post by bb88 »

maxerickson wrote: post #107
strictnein wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I dunno about the jail part, but the being ultimately responsible for the actions of the people working for you sort of goes with the title. Like, why is the organization set up so that 1 programmer can make a catastrophic mistake? The CEO is responsible for that.

So if the system is set up so that one programmer can make a catastrophic mistake, then the system is broken.

If the system is set up so that one general can launch a nuclear warhead, then the system is broken.

If the system is set up so that one politician can kill people without a trial, then the system is broken.

If the system is set up so that one nurse can release data on 1 million patients, then the system is broken.

It's not "what happens when a careless programmer does X." but rather "why do we have a system where a careless programmer can do X."

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#148

Post by yorwba »

creepydata wrote: post #116
pmyteh wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Here" in GP's comment is stated as being The Netherlands. Europe does in general have stricter data protection laws than the US, though I don't know them well enough to know which bits of this leak would be illegal here. Allowing the leak itself would be, at least under UK law.

So? The GP said "these days," not "in my country these days" stating it like it was some sort of universal truth. We aren't talking about compiling data on UK citizens or Dutch citizens, this is American companies compiling information about American citizens.

> here [...] these days.

Not exactly "my country", but it's implied.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#149

Post by rwc »

rattray wrote: post #145

I don't typically don hats with this much tin foil, and I don't think this is likely , but... The real danger of data like this, in my opinion, illegal usage for voter fraud. Find people who are likely to vote against you and likely to have poor voter registration documents, and remove them from the polls so they can't vote. Find people who aren't likely to vote at all and vote on their behalf. In-person, the only ve…

No. The data that would be useful for wide-scale voter fraud is already widely available from public/free sources, including state Secretaries of State or Departments of Elections.

The loss here is all the very expensive extra modeling and demographic work that isn't included on those files. But having that doesn't massively alter the mechanics of the voter fraud effort you're describing.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#150

Post by rwc »

timdavila wrote: post #104
enzanki_ars wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 CorpRe…

How could one tell if a vote is "reluctant" or not, based on the available data?

More often than not, this data is collected in the millions of phone calls and door-to-door visits conducted by volunteers.
Post reply on HN