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Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#11

Post by turk73 »

auiya wrote: post #8
blackearl wrote: post #7

"The repository's contents are likely scraped from public records" Seems like a non-story to me. If you put it out there, someone is collecting, cleaning, and selling it. The fix in this particular scenario is to put less online.

Almost every city in the US has a GIS system which you can use to look up tax record ownership of property parcels. Sales history too even. This information is also available via FOIA requests. There's probably easy ways to scrape it out considering almost every city uses the same 2-3 GIS software systems. In the case of home ownership, the only choice you have for privacy is to register an LLC under a paid attorney…

Funny you bring this up. As a privacy advocate I've had trouble over this. On the one hand, it is public record. On the other hand, it used to be in order to access those public records you would have to drive to the County Seat, enter a government building, and be physically present to request that information.

Nowadays, every time I forget one of my neighbors' last names, I can look them up on the GIS. I can also be nosey about all kinds of details like how much they paid for their house, and who is in arrears on taxes or their mortgage payments.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#12

Post by turk73 »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #10
auiya wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every city in the US has a GIS system which you can use to look up tax record ownership of property parcels. Sales history too even. This information is also available via FOIA requests. There's probably easy ways to scrape it out considering almost every city uses the same 2-3 GIS software systems. In the case of home ownership, the only choice you have for privacy is to register an LLC under a paid attorney…

Reading the Letters to the Editor and similar features in older magazines and newspapers reveals something that would be unthinkable today: it was common for the home address of the person writing to the periodical to be published along with their letter. As far as I can tell, no one had a problem with this. When I was young, drivers licenses included your Social Security number and it was common to have it printed o…

Back then it was rare for anyone to try and get you fired from your job and cause other economic harm simply because you disagreed with them or held an unpopular opinion. These days, information warfare is the norm and everything is on the table because "progressives" believe they have some kind of divine right to push their agenda at all costs.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#13

Post by falcolas »

blackearl wrote: post #7

"The repository's contents are likely scraped from public records" Seems like a non-story to me. If you put it out there, someone is collecting, cleaning, and selling it. The fix in this particular scenario is to put less online.

Small nit, public records aren't things you put out there. It's records of your interactions with the government (directly or indirectly) that the government makes available as part of their transparency and FOIA efforts.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#14

Post by playeren »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #10
auiya wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every city in the US has a GIS system which you can use to look up tax record ownership of property parcels. Sales history too even. This information is also available via FOIA requests. There's probably easy ways to scrape it out considering almost every city uses the same 2-3 GIS software systems. In the case of home ownership, the only choice you have for privacy is to register an LLC under a paid attorney…

Reading the Letters to the Editor and similar features in older magazines and newspapers reveals something that would be unthinkable today: it was common for the home address of the person writing to the periodical to be published along with their letter. As far as I can tell, no one had a problem with this. When I was young, drivers licenses included your Social Security number and it was common to have it printed o…

Knowing the address of three strangers isn't very valuable, and thus less likely to be abused. Knowing the address of millions of people can be very valuable, and thus very likely to be abused.

In cases like this the issue lies not in the specific datatypes, but the aggregation thereof.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#15

Post by quaquaqua1 »

Eikon wrote: post #9
PietdeVries wrote: post #6

From the article: However, under the laws of the People's Republic, government agencies can more or less search any machine at any time in the Middle Kingdom, meaning profiles on 56.5 million American residents appear to be at the fingertips of China, thanks to CheckPeople – we assume Beijing has files on all of us, though, to be fair. And that is exactly how the Europeans feel when their health records are handled b…

I’m starting to think the Facebook / Google way of harvesting data may really be over complicated. This kind of services shows people are willing to pay to give personal data that literally defines them as individuals to a commercial entity.

A dna test was really helpful in finding all my half siblings and other family members because my biological dad is a sperm donor.

The fact that my DNA can somehow turn up at the scene of a crime somewhere and the police can query the sample I sent to Ancestry x years ago, well, let's say that I already knew that risk going into it and it will have to be what it will have to be.

In our lifetimes, I'm not seeing a way for us to dismantle the forces that are pushing for such a big surveillance state.

Therefore, by definition, you can either find a way to cope within that surveillance state, or you can move to somewhere so remote and hidden that you can't be caught doing what they don't like.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#16

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

It's articles like this that make me realize many people really haven't come to terms with how the Internet has changed the definition of "privacy".

As mentioned in the article, this is all public data that probably any script kiddie with enough time could write scrapers for. It's a non-story. What's different is that (some) people somehow expect that this public data is as hard to collect and correlate as it was 30 years ago. Those days are long gone, and people should realize it.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#17

Post by swarnie_ »

General question to HN because i don't know the answer.

Has anyone ever tried de-duplicating and matching up records between multiple leaks to build user/person profiles?

I guess with enough unique keys, compute power and time you could build a reasonably accurate profile of a person by matching up email addresses, phone number or SN numbers?

Would probably make identify thief and fraud a lot easier going forwards.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#18

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

auiya wrote: post #8
blackearl wrote: post #7

"The repository's contents are likely scraped from public records" Seems like a non-story to me. If you put it out there, someone is collecting, cleaning, and selling it. The fix in this particular scenario is to put less online.

Almost every city in the US has a GIS system which you can use to look up tax record ownership of property parcels. Sales history too even. This information is also available via FOIA requests. There's probably easy ways to scrape it out considering almost every city uses the same 2-3 GIS software systems. In the case of home ownership, the only choice you have for privacy is to register an LLC under a paid attorney…

> In the case of home ownership, the only choice you have for privacy is to register an LLC under a paid attorney as a proxy, and have the LLC buy the home.

Note you can achieve a lot of this privacy benefit much more easily by transferring ownership of your house to a living trust (where your name isn't on the name of the trust). For companies that just scrape and correlate info (as opposed to doing a targeted search), that is good enough.

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#19

Post by sylvanaar »

yoaviram wrote: post #5

Following data leaks like this one I suggest sending the company, in this case CheckPeople, a GDPR / CCPA deletion request. Here's a simple way to do it: https://yourdigitalrights.org/?company=checkpeople.com Disclaimer: i'm one of the creators of the service.

How do you make money from it?

Re: Database containing details of 56M US residents found on the public internet

#20

Post by tapland »

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #15
Eikon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m starting to think the Facebook / Google way of harvesting data may really be over complicated. This kind of services shows people are willing to pay to give personal data that literally defines them as individuals to a commercial entity.

A dna test was really helpful in finding all my half siblings and other family members because my biological dad is a sperm donor. The fact that my DNA can somehow turn up at the scene of a crime somewhere and the police can query the sample I sent to Ancestry x years ago, well, let's say that I already knew that risk going into it and it will have to be what it will have to be. In our lifetimes, I'm not seeing a way…

You are contributing to it though. You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA.

It reads like 'people like me are out there and don't care, so if you do you have to move to the remaining square kilometers of Jungle'

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