The phone numbers in these data sets are weird and problematic, but the equivalent data in the US is usually public, and available for free to any registered candidate.
Why are candidates allowed to spam voters in the US?
Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
51–60 of 101 posts
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smith was friendly with Parker. Attended his wedding, did softball interviews with his wife who worked for a right wing media site.
See this is what I mean. "She was friendly" therefore she must be involved!!!
Didn't say she was involved. In this case, it seems most likely it was the weirdo separatist party that leaked the info.
But she's earned the animus of many Canadians and Albertans by playing footsie with garbage like David Parker, Tucker Carlson, etc.
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#53Respectfully to the American "this isn't that big a deal crowd": you're looking at it from the perspective that this is a commonplace occurrence in your country. IANAL but I have filed privacy complaints in the past at both the federal and provincial level. For the last 26 years in Canada it has been illegal for personal information to be bought and sold on a whim; the person to whom the information applies is consid…
In Canada, for most of the 20th century until maybe 15 years ago, your PII was in a big book that lived at everybody's house and the library unless you specifically opted out.
Thank goodness Canada doesn't use its past mistakes as a bar that it's ok to go back to.
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#54Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#55My understanding is that when Elections Alberta shares the voter list with legit users (ie: sitting members of the legislature), it includes unique fictitious entries in the data. That way if there is a leak of the data, they can trace the source of the leak. Which they apparently have done. I guess it's a form of a canary trap. It reminds me of mapmakers including fake towns or other features in their maps, in case…
It's mentioned explicitly in the article: "Elections Alberta salts the electors’ lists with the names of fake voters, so if one copy of a list is leaked, the agency can trace its origins. An analysis determined the list came from the Republican Party of Alberta, headed by Cam Davies, who, like Parker, has a well-documented history in Alberta as a political operative who pushes boundaries."
Do they have enough redundant fake entries, to prevent someone comparing two or more lists to find out which entries are fake? (either multiple lists supplied to the same person, or lists supplied to different people)
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It appears that they registered as a party to get access to the data and them disseminated it publicly through a vibecoded app. While this data may generally be public in the US, it usually isn't in Canada, and there's an expectation that parties don't publish the data and it is seeded to detect that. A bigger problem is that people in Canada sign up for this list with the expectation that this data will remain reaso…
I mean, it's not really optional for Canadians _not_ to sign up for the list. It's the official list of electors. If you're a citizen, you're going to end up on the voter list one way or another.
I was under the impression that this was the optional list that you sign up for with the CRA when you file your taxes, is that not the case?
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#57Respectfully to the American "this isn't that big a deal crowd": you're looking at it from the perspective that this is a commonplace occurrence in your country. IANAL but I have filed privacy complaints in the past at both the federal and provincial level. For the last 26 years in Canada it has been illegal for personal information to be bought and sold on a whim; the person to whom the information applies is consid…
> You have an entire country where institutions operate under the expectation that personally identifiable information isn't easily available like this I actually look like this as the opposite—SSNs, emails, phone numbers, and credit card numbers are more or less public, or at least relatively easy to guess, buy, or find online, and addresses are quite easy to find if you don't hide behind an LLC. I treat all as if t…
> I treat all as if they're public information and I assume our institutions do as well.
lolnope, at least not banks. Unlike here in the EU, where you need to provide some sort of physical ID to even open a bank account, much less get a line of credit...
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are candidates allowed to spam voters in the US?
Pesky First Amendment.
Sending mail to or cold calling voters, okay, that should by all definitions be covered by the First Amendment. Verifying voter rolls, okay, reasonable.
But there is no justification for providing voter roll data to the wide public in a way that is machine readable. Or to provide these data to third parties (including political parties, candidates or PACs).
Candidates and parties can use USPS Bulk Mail, they do not need to know the names of potential voters to exercise their right to free speech. People interested to check if they or someone they know are on the voter rolls (or not, in the case of suspected/possible fraud) can do so in person or by mail.
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, it's not really optional for Canadians _not_ to sign up for the list. It's the official list of electors. If you're a citizen, you're going to end up on the voter list one way or another.
I was under the impression that this was the optional list that you sign up for with the CRA when you file your taxes, is that not the case?
The data sharing between the CRA and Elections Canada is optional, but if you want to vote, you've got to be registered - whether via the CRA or otherwise.
Re: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pesky First Amendment.
Sending mail to or cold calling voters, okay, that should by all definitions be covered by the First Amendment. Verifying voter rolls, okay, reasonable. But there is no justification for providing voter roll data to the wide public in a way that is machine readable. Or to provide these data to third parties (including political parties, candidates or PACs). Candidates and parties can use USPS Bulk Mail, they do not n…
> But there is no justification for providing voter roll data to the wide public in a way that is machine readable.
Why not? It's considered public information, just like political donation records.