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Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

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Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno about anybody else, but I'd like to find a convenient canyon.

Literally everyone wants that, the problem is there isn't one, at least that anyone's been able to identify as of yet.

There certainly is one, if you only take into account public opinion. We're dealing with conflicting interests of people who generate data and corporations that collect and traffic data.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So do you consider your daily schedule, gps locations of where you go, to be public information? Nope. What's your point?

Your words, > "Just because you don't want something to be public doesn't mean that it isn't public." In the future, your location data could be tracked, shared/hacked, analyzed to produce more information, and breached just like this RNC dataset. My point is, something private doesn't become public when a criminal exposes it. It's still private to you.

What? It isn't public because it isn't public. Not because I don't want it to be public.

If in the future it is no longer public, then I won't consider it private. I may not be happy about it, but that doesn't change the fact that it is public at that point.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#343

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…

It's probably good that a lot of this is public, but one thing I think we're going to reckon with is how "available" all of this data should be, and how much it costs in terms of time or money to retrieve it. Should I be able to find the public records for any citizen, anywhere in the country, at the snap of a finger? Or should I have to go to e.g. the courthouse and ask for the records in person, deal with a phone s…

This is how data brokers make money: go through all the labor intensive manual acquisition processes and then resell it through a slick web UI.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your words, > "Just because you don't want something to be public doesn't mean that it isn't public." In the future, your location data could be tracked, shared/hacked, analyzed to produce more information, and breached just like this RNC dataset. My point is, something private doesn't become public when a criminal exposes it. It's still private to you.

What? It isn't public because it isn't public. Not because I don't want it to be public. If in the future it is no longer public, then I won't consider it private. I may not be happy about it, but that doesn't change the fact that it is public at that point.

If a criminal releases 100,000 credit card numbers, we don't all of the sudden consider credit card numbers to be public. We try to limit the spread of the leak, if possible, and shore up whatever security lapse occurred. Nowhere in that scenario to we begin to consider credit card numbers public.

So it is with birthdays. There isn't any government organization who will distribute that information.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#345
post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering it's listed as public record in the first place, I doubt it. I was just directly attacking your claim.

Birthday is not public record, and there is no evidence that it is. That's the point. There's no government entity that will give you a list of people's names and dates of birth. You cited California DMV which does not give up that information. They won't even give you someone's address unless you're legally entitled, like the police.

The state of Ohio seems to disagree with you. And they give it away for free.

https://www6.sos.state.oh.us/ords/f?p=111:1

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#346
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can not vouch for the accuracy of those. but as a power user of GOPDataCenter (The portal they provide to campaigns and GOP County chairs) the Modeled Ethnicity is pretty terrible.

Can confirm.

Calculated ethnicity accuracy is horrible in the public information space, as is calculated gender.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every county is different so some of my statements may not apply everywhere (I live in San Francisco). I've yet to work a poll (next election) but have gotten to know the system here pretty well through the SF elections commission. Our system is very far from perfect. Many counties do not even audit ballots after every election (let alone use only paper ballots). Epollbook software can be all over the place. Voter ve…

Nicely done. We can certainly compare notes. I still encourage you to work or observe poll sites on election day. Soup to nuts. If you work it, you'll get training, see how the Australian Ballot is supposed to work. It requires many hands, eye balls, proper accounting. I'm not so worried about identity theft for in person voting. Just doesn't (didn't) seen to happen much on the west coast. I vigorously opposed closin…

Even better than Approval Voting.

http://www.equal.vote

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)!

The US constitution forbids the US government from acting in certain ways, it in no way impedes upon private organizations. Tort law and the like is what holds private organizations accountable. i.e. The fourth amendment does not protect you from a private entity or individual; laws covering trespassing, theft, breaking and entering do. Please don't drag the constitution into an argument it does not have a place in.

I didn't say the constitution protects me from private assholes. My point was privacy was important to our founders and remains important today. Had our founders known corporations would be a thing and grow as powerful as the government, I would argue they would be included.

We need laws to protect us from them. Much more and better laws. The fact that the constitution does protect us from gov. is a good argument that our gov. should be active in protecting us from corps. Anyway that is my conjecture.

Re: Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? It isn't public because it isn't public. Not because I don't want it to be public. If in the future it is no longer public, then I won't consider it private. I may not be happy about it, but that doesn't change the fact that it is public at that point.

If a criminal releases 100,000 credit card numbers, we don't all of the sudden consider credit card numbers to be public. We try to limit the spread of the leak, if possible, and shore up whatever security lapse occurred. Nowhere in that scenario to we begin to consider credit card numbers public. So it is with birthdays. There isn't any government organization who will distribute that information.

You most certainly do consider stolen credit cards public! You don't just limit the information and hope for the best—you attempt to inform everyone affected of the breach and try to get everyone to change their card number (because it's public at this point).
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