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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

#21

Post by lubujackson »

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…

This is an interesting insight.

I think most reactionary pro-privacy responses (the HN default perspective) really stem from a complicated internalization of data gathering/use capabilities that has been adjusted over time combined with a lizard brain feeling of invasiveness. Because almost always no one particularly gives a crap about YOU and your specific data, but they may profit from and misuse your information in passing or in aggregate.

It is a lot like the feeling of having your car broken into or house robbed. You feel personally violated but more than likely you are a victim of circumstance. It can be hard to distinguish between faceless identification for (ad network data gathering, for the most part) and the risks of general data availability that makes anyone as capable as an old P. I. (especially when data leaks conflate the two).

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

#22

Post by llamataboot »

tapland wrote: post #20
quaquaqua1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'

I don't think so, it reads like the surveillance state is so pervasive, the risks of leaking data to it so ever-present, and the possible use of that data in the future in ways we couldn't have guessed is largely a collective-action problem that likely can only be solved with laws, rather than individuals opting in or out of everything.

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

#23

Post by awb »

tapland wrote: post #20
quaquaqua1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA.

Noob question, but how does this work?

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

#24

Post by tapland »

awb wrote: post #23
tapland wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA. Noob question, but how does this work?

Your DNA is extremely similar to your close relatives.

Those murderers found through 23 and me data? They didn't submit their DNA, their family members did.

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

#25

Post by tapland »

llamataboot wrote: post #22
tapland wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'

I don't think so, it reads like the surveillance state is so pervasive, the risks of leaking data to it so ever-present, and the possible use of that data in the future in ways we couldn't have guessed is largely a collective-action problem that likely can only be solved with laws, rather than individuals opting in or out of everything.

The commented completely missed the fact that they are contributing to building the mass surveillance that covers OTHERS that don't opt in. You can't opt out of 23 and me since your relatives opt in for you.

The US does not collect everyone's DNA at birth, and there would be some pushback against that. But there isn't against 23 and me because few care about others.

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

#26

Post by alistairSH »

awb wrote: post #23
tapland wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'

> You also added your entire close family to the searchable registry by submitting your DNA. Noob question, but how does this work?

Roughly... Crime is committed, police find DNA sample at scene, police compare sample with online DNA registry, hits as a near-match for personX, police now know that a sibling/cousin of personX is the culprit. That sibling/cousin never allowed their own DNA to be collected.

This happened in 2018... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27...

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

#27

Post by dannyw »

swarnie_ wrote: post #17

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.

You have, quite literally, described Facebook.

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

#28

Post by _pgmf »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #16

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…

[dead]

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

#29

Post by deadmetheny »

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…

>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.

The problem with this is that by submitting your DNA, you're not handwaving away your own privacy - you're also making the decision for your relatives as well to handwave away their privacy.

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

"It's hard so why even bother trying". Yeah, fuck this milquetoast line of thought, to be frank. The cost of liberty is eternal vigilance. Don't engage in the sort of activity that lays the groundwork for totalitarian surveillance.

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

#30

Post by anon73044 »

swarnie_ wrote: post #17

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.

Probably not much more than what was in the Equifax breach.

I think one of the bigger issues in generating profiles on ~325 million people would be merging tons of incomplete data and lots of old/outdated data. Not to say that you couldn't use some machine learning to fill in the blanks, but I'm sure most if the big data/analytics companies are already doing that.

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